"Plan to expand Chicago's O'Hare International Airport hits Latinos, FAA says"

Friday, January 14, 2005

Plan to expand Chicago's O'Hare International Airport hits Latinos, FAA says
The Chicago (IL) Tribune


A disproportionate number of minority residents would be forced to move from
their homes under Chicago's plan to expand O'Hare International Airport, and
five nearby suburbs would suffer the greatest increase in airplane noise,
according to a preliminary FAA analysis released Thursday.

The city's planned relocation of homes and businesses to make way for new
runways would directly affect 2,631 people, according to the Federal
Aviation Administration's draft environmental impact statement on the $15
billion airport project. About 1,600 of the total are members of minority
communities, and of them, most are Hispanic.

Most of them live or work south of O'Hare where a controversial far-south
runway--the linchpin of the city's plan to increase flight capacity--would
be built.

"Businesses could be negatively impacted by the loss of minority residents,"
the FAA study said.

The demolition of homes and businesses would also result in an annual tax
loss estimated at $5.6 million to schools and other taxing bodies in Cook
and DuPage Counties, based on 2002 tax bills, the study found.

Meanwhile, the FAA's 5,000-page draft report on the airport project
disagreed with the Daley administration's contention that 195,000 permanent
jobs would be created in the region. The FAA study determined 90,000 new
jobs would result by 2018, but 40,000 of those would be created even without
the O'Hare project.

Rosemarie Andolino, director of the airport expansion project, said the
city's goal is to increase flight capacity and reduce delays by creating a
more efficient airport.

"Whether it's 195,000 new jobs or 90,000 new jobs, it is still a win-win for
the region," Andolino said.

The FAA study also determined that 2,073 more housing units than today would
be exposed to noise levels averaging 65 decibels or louder during the day
and night. The FAA has identified 65 decibels as the upper level at which
most land-planning uses are compatible with aviation noise.

The areas in question are mostly in Park Ridge, Rosemont and Schiller Park
on the east side of the airport, and Wood Dale and Bensenville west of the
airport, the FAA said.

The FAA assessment did not endorse Chicago's eight-runway reconfiguration of
O'Hare. A final decision is expected in September. The agency said it will
continue to study two alternative airfield layouts that would modify city
plans to construct the far-south runway, which would cause the most
displacement of residents and businesses.

But the FAA analysis concluded that some type of reconstruction is needed at
O'Hare and that the city's plan reduces airport delays at least until flight
volume grows to 1.2 million annually. O'Hare handled 992,471 flights in
2004.

The FAA support for expanding O'Hare was based on flight and passenger
forecasts showing the combined growth expected at airports in Gary,
Milwaukee, Rockford and a planned airport near Peotone in Will County would
fail to equal the growth projected at O'Hare.

"That is not to say that building Peotone and expanding the existing
airports in the region are not needed," said FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro.
"But they didn't pass the test" as an alternative to expanding O'Hare, he
said.


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