Just because the South Suburban Airport hasn’t made headlines lately, doesn’t mean there aren't still efforts to keep it alive through the planning process.

 Aug. 22, 2008 marked the beginning of a 30-day public comment period for the 2030 Regional Transportation Plan for Northeastern Illinois. The report is available online at the following address:  http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/WorkArea/showcontent.aspx?id=10070

 The study is being undertaken by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), the agency created by the legislature in 2005 to combine land use and transportation planning. It merged the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC) and Chicago Area Transportation Study (CATS). 

 Comments on the plan will be taken by CMAP until Sept. 21. To submit comments in writing, they can be mailed to: CMAP, ATTN: TIP Amendments, Sears Tower, 233 S. Wacker Drive, Suite 800, Chicago, Illinois 60657. To e-mail, please include "TIP Amendments" in the subject line to: TIP@cmap.illinois.gov.

 While the proposed airport isn't listed in chapter headings in this report, it does figure prominently. It has been carefully woven throughout several aspects of the plan for the future. 

 Previous versions of the draft plan are included in several footnotes, such as the following that states, "It should be noted that inclusion of a new South Suburban Airport was assumed in all Shared Path 2030 (approved in 2003) evaluations at the request of both the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois. Planning for the airport itself occurs at the discretion of the State of Illinois."

 The Shared Path 2030 plan, is further explained as an assumption, whereby planners assumed additional air capacity in northeastern Illinois, citing a Sept. 2002 policy agreement by the City of Chicago and State of Illinois which defined, “for long-rang planning purposes, an air capacity scenario prescribing three major airports to serve northeastern Illinois: O’Hare, Midway, and a new south suburban airport to be constructed in Will County.”

 This outdated policy agreement fails to consider that a new airport would be considered a sixth airport, since three others are claiming their place as the third airport — General Mitchell International Airport, Milwaukee; Gary Chicago International Airport, Gary; and Chicago Rockford International Airport, Rockford. These airports have all been recipients of significant federal transportation funds for improvements and upgrades. The South Suburban Airport remains frozen, as it has for 20 years in the planning stage.

 CMAP recognizes the dramatic 2030 growth forecast by its predecessor, NIPC and the planning opportunities the agency said were offered by the proposed airport. But, the text in the 2030 plan points out that the area where the proposed airport is located “remains quite rural, but the transportation and land use pressures that urban growth brings are evident only a few miles away.”

 A few of the airport-related threads woven into the 2030 plan relate to the proposed airport are as follows:

* An 8-mile extension of the Metra Electric District line between University Park and the proposed airport. 

* The study assumes the line will provide transit access to jobs at and near the airport, plus express passenger transport to and from downtown Chicago. 

* Anticipates that planning for completion of the I-355 extension project will be dependent on the development schedule for the proposed airport with planning for substantial investment in the long term. 

* Assumes a prominent role for the proposed airport in the extension of the Canadian National Railroad right-of-way. 

* Assumes improvements to IL394, a key access route to the proposed airport and to add a connector road between IL 394 and Interstate 57 for access to the airport.

* The plan acknowledges that the connector road was removed from the inaugural airport plan.

I-57 is also noted as an access route for the proposed airport. 

* Additional interchanges should be considered to accommodate future growth. Transit service and carpool priority access alternatives should be considered in coordination with the development of the proposed airport.

* Project studies should proceed to address strategic guidance, including possible airport access, freight accommodation, economic development, and non-motorized access to transit stations.

* No centerline was recorded in the feasibility study undertaken for a toll highway linking I-355 at I-80 to the proposed airport.

* The Illiana Expressway, supported in the 2040 Regional Framework Plan, which would cross Plum Creek and pass Goodenow Grove is considered a “corridor recommendation.” It is identified as in the vicinity of the proposed airport.

       Airport proves too costly for county
  Airport studies with their projections and 
promised economic stimulus are akin to looking 
into a crystal ball. But hindsight and experience 
provides a much clearer image. 
  MidAmerica St. Louis Airport, which opened 
in downstate Mascoutah in 1997 promised pros-
perity, but just last week, the promised benefits 
that never materialized caused one St. Clair 
County Board Member to suggest that the airport 
be mothballed.
  MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in St. Clair 
County was billed as an economic engine for its 
region, much like the proposed South Suburban 
Airport. MidAmerica was supposed to serve 1.1 
million passengers by the year 2000. 
  But the reality of the situation is far different. It 
handled only 25,513 passengers in 2006. 
  According to the Belleville News Democrat, 
County Board Member Kyle McCarter stated that 
a recent county audit showed the county-owned 
MidAmerica St. Louis Airport had reported a 
$4.2 million loss in operating capitol for the year. 
He said with interest and depreciation, the 
amount is closer to $11 million. Property taxes in 
St. Clair County have jumped by 44 percent, 
from $22 million to $31.8 million. MidAmerica 
is a county-owned airport. 
  Calling the county's spending "unwise," 
McCarter said people just can’t afford to pay the 
taxes that are being imposed upon them.

  In addition, a study was completed last year entitled South Suburban Airport Community and Mobility Benefits by CMAP. One of the preparers was Tom Palzer, the former Kankakee County planner who has long been involved in the historic airport study process.

 The report uses data compiled by the al Chalabi Group, TAMS/Earthtech, Global Insight, Inc. L.E.K. Consulting, as well as several past airport studies. It assumes no passengers until 2010, but by 2030, the proposed South Suburban Airport is estimated to have 4.5 million passengers. 

 "The economic impacts of the South Suburban Airport may be substantial," according to the report. "The South Suburban Airport is expected to bring the region wealth and jobs that would otherwise go elsewhere or evaporate. 

 "New jobs resulting from the airport will include not only people directly employed in aviation, but also jobs supported by visitor expenditures (indirect jobs) and the economic multiplier impact of these jobs (induced jobs)."

 The report assumes a total economic growth of $6.2 billion with the airport. That would translate into $2.5 billion in labor income, $157 million in Illinois sales and income taxes per year by 2030.

 The report assumes 7,737 direct jobs, 50,476 total jobs, including indirect and induced jobs. 

 In the year 2030, the total jobs projected are 50,501 with 21,822 in Will County and 7,625 in South Cook County where the population is expected to include 19,214 and 7,841 respectively.

 Freight benefits are also outlined in the report which claims the proposed airport is expected to handle six percent of the metropolitan Chicago market by 2030. 

 "As with passenger traffic, freight usage of the South Suburban Airport is expected to grow slowly.

 "Initial usage of passenger planes by freight handlers may be limited by small aircraft expected at the inaugural airport," according to the report.