[Archive Home][Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

              

"Airport Land Use: School's new home forces small Chicago airport to shut runway"

Thursday, April 19, 2007

School's new home forces small airport to shut runway
New site too close to landing strip
By Graydon Megan
The Chicago (IL) Tribune


Faced with the prospect of losing federal grants, the board of directors of
Chicago Executive Airport voted unanimously Wednesday to close a runway
because a school is located less than 1000 feet from its west end.

The short runway handles about 3 percent to 5 percent of the Wheeling
airport's operations, primarily smaller planes.

The two towns that own the airfield, Wheeling and Prospect Heights, need to
approve the closing and are expected to vote in the next few weeks.

The decision came after Wheeling approved a permit last year for Alexander
Graham Bell Montessori School to operate, not realizing that the Federal
Aviation Administration would say the property is included within a "runway
protection zone" that should be kept free of tall structures.

"The school itself wasn't in the runway protection zone," said Sandy
Mosetick, president of the non-profit school. "It was just going to be a
little corner of the parking lot."

The FAA notified the airport of its concerns in October and said allowing
the school to operate there could jeopardize future FAA grants, said airport
board Chairman Kevin Dohm. By that time, the school had spent about $1.3
million to buy the 2.5-acre site at the southeast corner of South and
Capitol Drives and had begun soil work.

The Montessori school in Prospect Heights has about 42 students, according
to Principal Carol Martorano. The airport proposed a land swap, but the
school rejected a 3.5-acre site because of how much improvements would cost.

That led to the decision to close runway 6-24. "We don't want to close a
runway, but I don't think we have any choice," said Dohm, a United Airlines
pilot who learned to fly at the airport. He added that the runway doesn't
meet current FAA standards.

   Post your opinion on this story in the CAA General Aviation Forum
http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php

*****************************************
Current CAA news channel:

Fair Use Notice
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of political, human rights, economic, democracy and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. If you have any queries regarding this issue, please Email us at stepheni@cwnet.com