South Suburban Airport Commission Seeks Developers for New Airport

Commission Seeks Developers for New Airport
Star Newspapers, IL

Thursday, November 13, 2003

The South Suburban Airport Commission on Tuesday announced a worldwide
request for qualified developers to design, finance, develop and operate
the airport near Peotone for the first 40 years.

Statements of qualifications are due Dec. 17, and technical proposals are
due Feb. 16. The commission expects to award a final contract next spring
and to open the airport for business in 2008.

The SSAC, spearheaded by U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Chicago, met for
the second time Tuesday at the Park Forest Village Hall.

Created with the goal of assuming control of the project from the state,
the SSAC unites Jackson's office with leaders of south suburban
communities seeking an economic boost and O'Hare-area communities fighting
O'Hare airport expansion.

But Park Forest Trustee Katherine Armstrong, an airport foe, said the
airport planners "aren't looking very carefully" at reality.

"They're so hungry for economic development that they aren't looking very
carefully at this," said Armstrong, a member of the group Shut This
Airport Nightmare Down who said her background is in environmental
science.

Citing sluggish airline business, Armstrong said the $100 million already
spent on the third airport project would have been better spent elsewhere,
such as Harvey, Ford Heights or the Calumet Harbor area.

Armstrong said airport backers don't understand how the project will
disrupt the rural environment and way of life.

"They're city dwellers. They're real estate people. They don't think of
the land (as) the soil that nourishes us all. They think, 'There's that
empty space, and we have to fill it.' "

Despite the lack of major airline interest, the SSAC says the project is
"intended to attract the next generation of airline operators and not
detract from any of the existing airports in the region."

SSAC executive director Rick Bryant said federal Transportation Secretary
Norm Mineta was "enthusiastic" about the project in a Nov. 6 meeting in
Washington with Jackson and FAA associate administrator of airports Woodie
Woodward.

SSAC officials have also met with Metra executive director Phil Pagano
about plans to extend the Metra Electric Line to Peotone; with ComEd
officials on utility services; and with Illinois AFL-CIO president
Margaret Blackshere on labor issues.

The commission has been trying to set meetings with Chicago Mayor Richard
Daley as well as industrialist and financier Lester Crown, who heads the
aviation task force of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and former
Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce chairman Norm Bobins.

SSAC member communities currently number 26.

The SSAC has set a cut-off date of Dec. 17 for new membership applications.

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