"Fill that O'Hare hole, says city"

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Fill that O'Hare hole, says city 
BY FRAN SPIELMAN
The Chicago (IL) Sun Times


City Hall is demanding that a private contractor fill in a giant hole in
the ground at O'Hare Airport that has remained ever since construction
of an $8 million commercial vehicle center was halted amid embarrassing
conflicts with one of Mayor Daley's proposed new runways.

"You can't build half a house and just walk away from it. Somebody has
to be responsible for that," Chicago Aviation Commissioner John Roberson
said.

"They dug the hole. They should be required to return the site to its
original condition. If we have to fill it ourselves, we'll look to get
those monies back from the developer."

Matt Baines, one of three Commercial Vehicle Center partners,, refused
to comment on Roberson's demand, likely to trigger a dispute ending up
in court.

Built by private contractors on city-owned land off Bessie Coleman
Drive, the $8 million center would have given limousine drivers a
staging area akin to a truck stop, complete with showers, a car wash and
maintenance facilities. The complex was designed to improve service by
separating taxicabs and limousines at O'Hare.

Baines and his partners agreed to build the facility at their own
expense on a 428,000-square-foot lot used to stage construction
equipment. In exchange, Chicago taxpayers would have received a $1
million-a-year cut of concession revenues and inherited the improvements
at the end of the lease.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported last spring that City Hall had
permanently halted construction of the complex after an airspace study
conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration revealed embarrassing
conflicts with one of Daley's proposed runways.

Provided utility poles were lowered, the FAA concluded that the center
would not pose a conflict with O'Hare's existing runway layout. But,
there would be a major conflict with a proposed runway to be known as
27-Right if the feds approve Daley's massive O'Hare expansion project,
the FAA found.

"They would probably have to demolish part of that facility because it
would be too close to the end of the second or third runway at the north
end," FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro told the Sun-Times at the time.

Armed with the FAA's ruling, City Hall demanded that construction "cease
and desist" because of nine violations that city officials insist were
unrelated. They range from failure to furnish evidence of insurance and
provide the city with performance bonds to failure to complete the job
and commence operations by Dec. 26, 2002.

Now, Roberson is maintaining that the FAA's airspace ruling had nothing
to do with the city's edict. And he's demanding that the contractor fill
the giant hole in the ground and return the site to its original
condition.

"Our thing is, you didn't deliver the project you said you'd deliver
when you said you'd deliver it. We're terminating the project based on
that. We're done with it. We're just not going to expend any more time
and energy on it," Roberson said.

"It was simply a foundation permit. They erected the walls on their own.
When you erect a wall and exceed the scope of a permit -- if I was still
building commissioner, I would have made them tear it down. You know how
this stuff goes. They'll say, 'We've done this. We should be
compensated.' But, I don't think there's anything for us to compensate.
In fact, it's the other way around. They have to make the city whole."


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