Proposed Chicago south suburban airport
The proposed Chicago south suburban airport, also referred to as the Peotone airport is a major airport proposed to be built in Peotone, Illinois, a south suburb of Chicago to serve increased demand of air travel throughout Chicagoland. The idea began in 1986 with a state commission formed. The two commercial airports serving Chicagoland, O'Hare and Midway, are located in and operated by the city of Chicago. The Illinois Department of Transportation continues to acquire land in the Peotone area should the airport come to fruition. The location is controversial in terms of whether expansion of other airports would better serve increased air traffic demand.
History of the proposed airport
Stanley Berge, a professor at Northwestern University, first proposed a Peotone airport site on November 13, 1968. His main arguments for the proposed site were that it could have fast access to Chicago by rail and highway, that the site was far enough from O'Hare Airport to avoid interfering with flight patterns there, that it would have all-weather flight safety, and that the site was environmentally compatible with the surrounding area. Berge envisioned a high-speed train service to downtown Chicago.The Peotone site was an alternative location to a proposed lake site announced during Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley's 1967 inaugural speech, just one of many projects proposed, including a Red Line expansion. The Chicago Public Works and Aviation Department worked cohesively with the Federal Aviation Administration during the Johnson and Nixon administrations from January 1967 to January 1970 to develop a litany of needed consultant reports beginning with an appraisal report, a summary of engineering reports, and graphic simulation studies for both a land and lake site. On January 27, 1970, Daley shelved plans for the airport, stating, "It was not necessary until year 2000".
Following 15 years of investment at O'Hare Airport and Midway Airport in the early 1970s, the north urban airport became a strain for the north central suburbs of Cook County in the mid 1980s. State legislators from north suburban Cook and DuPage counties applied political pressure to control expansion of O'Hare. House and Senate legislators tried three times to pass a Metropolitan Airport Authority bill from 1985 to 1987, in an effort to alleviate airspace noise and pollution from the urban airport. Legislators compromised on a resolution, which awarded $500,000 for a transportation study for the proposed third Chicago airport.
In 1986, state legislation created the Illinois Airport System Plan Policy Commission. The commission had bipartisan and tri-state support from the governors of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. Commissioners chose consultant Peat Marwick to develop the aviation studies. The first capacity study concluded that neither O’Hare nor Midway could meet the expanding aviation market, and recommended a supplemental airport be built. Senator Aldo DeAngelis of Olympia Fields advocated for the Peotone site stating, "economic considerations would override political ones in choosing a location."
Nearly 2 million people in 66 municipalities and villages live in south Cook and north central Cook, which would be directly impacted both positively and negatively by an urban airport. Land restrictions of an urban airport had taken its toll on some of the members of the North Central Council of Mayors; they began the first suburban Cook coalition. Along with the South Suburban Council of Mayors and the Southwest Council of Mayors, this group has produced consultant reports showing negative impacts.
However, it appears the passenger facility charges sealed its fate in the selection process. The City of Chicago also acquired three seats on the IASPPC, bringing the total to eleven. Political pressure by the City of Chicago ended in IASPPC members voting to eliminate all rural sites from the final vote. The final vote selection was between Gary Airport and Lake Calumet. IASSPPC member DeAngelis gave an emotional speech "that attacked the process and political pressure placed on the committee."
Following the selection of the Lake Calumet site, Daley attempted to put a legislative bill through during the end of the legislative session. The cost of the Lake Calumet site was $10.8 billion. Senate President Pate Phillips did not support the bill because it left the state of Illinois footing $2 billion of the cost. It took four tries in the House before reaching the Senate. By July 1992, Mayor Daley declared the airport issue dead.
Planning for the South Suburban Airport began in 1984 as a cooperative venture between the states of Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, the city of Chicago and the Federal Aviation Administration. After many studies, the airport location alternatives were narrowed to five sites in 1990.
The state of Illinois submitted an Environmental Assessment to the FAA in March 1998 for approval of the development of an airport at a site in eastern Will County, Illinois. Recently, the FAA prepared a Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement for site approval and land acquisition. The FAA issued a Record of Decision on the Tier 1 EIS in July 2002, which approved the Will County, Illinois, site as a technically and environmentally feasible location for the development of a potential future air carrier airport in the far south suburban area of Chicago.
The Illinois Department of Transportation began purchasing land surrounding the Will County airport site in 2002 with funding of $75 million earmarked by the Illinois FIRST program. The state has purchased about half of the required for the plan. The current plan is in flux as the position of the runways are continuing to be debated. Eminent domain cases are working their way through the courts.
In June 2008, Gary-Chicago International announced an agreement with 3 local railroads that will allow the airport to relocate railroad tracks and expand its runways. These longer runways will be able to accommodate jets of any size class. In March 2011, then Illinois Governor Pat Quinn announced his intention to start construction "as fast as humanly possible" on an airport in Illinois; however, the FAA had not finalized plans yet and the land acquisition was still not yet completed. In June, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood noted that there had been little call in Washington, DC, for the Peotone airport compared to the support for the O'Hare expansion, although plans for the South Suburban Airport are still in the works.
The proposed airport is within the airspace of an existing airport, Bult Field, a privately owned airport with a 5,000-foot runway. On July 1, 2014, IDOT purchased Bult Field and some surrounding farmland for $34 million for the new Chicago-area airport.
The proposed third airport was included in REBUILD Illinois, the 2019 capital bill signed into law by Governor J. B. Pritzker. The bill allocated $162 million allocated toward road improvements that would connect Interstate 57 to the proposed airport site, an environmental review, and the completion of a master plan.
Support
An op-ed in Crain's Chicago Business by public affairs consultant Delmarie Cobb cites its proximity to five of Amazon's south suburban fulfillment centers and job opportunities for residents of the South Side of Chicago which is within 30 miles of the proposed site as reasons to support a third airport in the south suburbs.Supporters of a new south suburban airport have historically found common cause with those opposing an expansion of O'Hare Airport, which is routinely ranked as the world's first or second busiest airport. The proponents believe a south suburban airport would alleviated the heavy and still growing air traffic in Chicagoland, not necessitating the expansion of the already extremely large and busy O'Hare, and providing additional economic opportunities to the South suburbs.
Proponents of a third Chicago airport believe that Rockford, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin are not close enough to Chicago to be effective, and that expanding Milwaukee's or Gary, Indiana's airports for Chicago-bound travelers is not as financially beneficial to the state of Illinois as it will be to the states of Wisconsin or Indiana.
Opposition
There is no official name beyond the south suburban airport, and two separate plans exist. The FAA refers to both proposals as South Suburban Airport. The airport would serve as an additional airport in the Chicago metropolitan area. Critics believe the airport is unnecessary and may be a failure like MidAmerica St. Louis Airport. These groups believe that expanding O'Hare or other existing international airports in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Rockford, Illinois; or Gary, Indiana are thought to be viable alternatives.The Peotone specific opposition to the south suburban airport includes environmentalists and farmers.
Possible Airlines and destinations
The following list combines all current scheduled flights to Chicago O'Hare, Chicago Midway and Chicago Rockford airports. Please note, that the Proposed South Suburban Airport has not yet been determined yet if it is going to be a new airport.Passenger
Notes:- : Ethiopian Airlines' flight from Addis Ababa to O'Hare stops at Dublin, but the flight from O'Hare to Addis Ababa is direct.
Cargo
Alternative proposals
Various politicians and interest groups have proposed alternatives to a south suburban airport.Lake Calumet site
Four months after the election of Mayor Richard M. Daley in August 1989, the Lake Calumet site was submitted by Daley as an alternative site to the IASPPC. By February 5, 1990, Daley released a feasibility study for the Lake Calumet site which indicated that the $5 billion cost to construct the airport would be partially funded by a passenger facility charge which would generate $1.8 billion. Federal legislation sealed the passenger facility charges on August 2, 1990, in the 101st Congress's 2nd session through H.R. 5170.The proposed airport would have resulted in the demolition of Chicago’s Hegewisch neighborhood along with portions of suburban Burnham and Calumet City and faced staunch opposition from Hegewisch residents. After facing opposition from Senate President Pate Philip and concerns over the cost of the airport, Daley declared the airport proposal "dead."