"Chicago stalled on cemetery for O'Hare"

Saturday, December 3, 2005

City stalled on cemetery for O'Hare 
BY DAVID BRUMMER
The Associated Press


A federal appeals court Friday temporarily blocked the city of Chicago from
taking over a suburban cemetery in the path of the planned $15 billion
expansion of O'Hare Airport.

The injunction by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of
Appeals comes less than three weeks after U.S. District Judge David Coar in
Chicago dismissed a lawsuit filed by attorneys for the cemetery and two
suburbs affected by the expansion.

The O'Hare project is aimed at reducing flight delays at one of the nation's
busiest airports by reconfiguring runways, adding others and building
another terminal.

Expansion opponents have said the project is not worth the cost, will be too
damaging to nearby communities and that relocating graves at St. Johannes
Cemetery to clear space for a new runway violates owners' constitutional
religious rights.

Friday's injunction means the city can't receive the legal title to the
cemetery until the three-judge panel makes a permanent ruling on an appeal
filed Nov. 23 by attorneys for the cemetery. If the city is granted the
title, it can develop that property.


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