Bensenville resident Scott Heinrich recalls the thrill as a child watching the jets roar just a few hundred feet overhead on their way to and from O`Hare International Airport.
Now 33, Heinrich lives in his parents` house at 305 Poplar Ave., which he bought several years ago. The planes still roar overhead, drowning out conversation and rattling doors and windows.
”But now I`m a homeowner, and I can`t stand it,” he said.
Heinrich says he`d jump at the chance to sell his house to the City of Chicago, which has proposed spending $32 million to buy out as many as 220 homeowners in Bensenville and unincorporated Du Page County as part of its controversial noise relief plan.
”This is a pretty nice neighborhood to live in . . . (but) my daughter is 8 months old. I don`t want her to go through this,” he said.
The noise plan, called the Part 150 Noise Compatibility Planning Study, also includes a propopal to spend $73.8 million for soundproofing homes of the next hardest-hit group of homeowners.
About 3,700 homeowners in seven suburbs and portions of unincorporated Cook and Du Page Counties could qualify for insulation, double-paned windows and even central air conditioners to better seal their homes against jet noise.
Or, they could choose to have the city make up the difference at the time of sale if the value of their homes have declined by 10 percent because of the noise.
Under the plan, households eligible for this portion of the noise program include Des Plaines, 1,230; Bensenville, 870; Wood Dale, 710; unincorporated Du Page County, 330; Rosemont, 280; Franklin Park, 160; Schiller Park, 90; Elk Grove Village, 10; unicorporated Cook County, 10. Noise contour maps showing the affected neighborhoods were released this week by the Chicago Department of Aviation.
There`s a precedent for all of this.
Under the Part 150 plan approved in 1985 for Sea-Tac International Airport, the Port of Seattle rated about 10,000 homes eligible for an average of $18,000 apiece in soundproofing, said Diane Summerhays, planning project manager for the Port of Seattle. Federal airport noise abatement funds covered 80 percent of the costs.
The port authority also has spent $100 million since the 1970s to buy out and relocate 1,400 homeowners, Summerhays said.
But to some suburbanites here, Chicago`s proposed Part 150 plan looks like a deal too good to be true.
Betty Blauw moved to her house at 1410 Hillside Drive, Bensenville, in 1951 after Chicago condemned her previous dwelling on York Road to make room to expand O`Hare. She said that she didn`t look forward to dealing with Chicago again.
”I don`t believe they`d give us fair market value anyway,” Blauw said. But, she added, ”You don`t stand much chance fighting Chicago. We found that out before. Chicago is too strong. The city gave us a price and there was no bargaining on it.”
Bonnie Traficanti, whose home is at 5968 N. Ruby St., Rosemont, said that she and her husband, Charles, plan to retire to Arizona and would be glad to have the city make up any difference they might lose in a sale because of jet noise.
But Traficanti said she doesn`t think the city would ever come up with the money.
Noah Thomas, 476 Elmhurst St., Bensenville, said that he doesn`t want to sell his home of 31 years, but is resigned to the notion that if Chicago wants his house badly enough, ”they`ll just condemn it.”
”Then you`ll have to be happy with what they give you. You can`t fight City Hall.” he said.
Chicago aviation officials insist that what they propose would be entirely voluntary, and that no suburban homeowner would be forced to sell or participate in any city-sponsored program.
These comments illustrate the deeply rooted distrust harbored by many suburbanites toward Chicago and explain why there is a seemingly unbridgeable gulf between the suburbs and the city over O`Hare noise.
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The mayors and village presidents who serve on the Suburban O`Hare Commission, a coalition of 12 suburbs and Du Page County, accuse Chicago of using the Part 150 process to advance a hidden agenda for new runways at O`Hare, which supposedly could lead to even more aircraft operations and noise.
The anti-noise advocates achieved a victory last week when the O`Hare Advisory Committee voted to reject Chicago`s noise proposal and replaced it with one drafted by the Suburban O`Hare Commission.
The alternate plan calls for no new runways; a third airport on a rural
”green grass” site; reducing aircraft operations at O`Hare to 700,000 a year from 800,000 currently; banning late-night flights of older, noisier jets, and phasing out those planes entirely by 1996.
But spokesmen for the Chicago Department of Aviation said the city will move forward with its Part 150 plan, holding a public hearing this winter and submitting the proposal to the Federal Aviation Administration in the spring. If the FAA approves the plan, Chicago would become eligible for federal noise abatement funds.
And that illustrates another gripe the suburbs have about Chicago: The city never takes them seriously.
U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) said that it was his understanding that
”as far back as 1986, a commitment was made between the FAA and the O`Hare Advisory Committee” that the federal agency ”wouldn`t run roughshod over the wishes of the committee.”
”We`ll just have to continue to try to make the FAA more responsive to the people problem,” Hyde said.
The success of Chicago`s noise plan ultimately will depend on whether the public takes advantage of it.
One requirement of the noise program that especially irks some suburban leaders is that to get any money out of Chicago, a homeowner must sign an
”avigation easement” granting the city fly-over rights. That would preclude homeowners from suing the city over jet noise.
Frank Griseto, who lives on Pine Lane in Bensenville, said he would have to consider carefully whether to waive his rights to sue, but added that he probably would go ahead and sign the papers in order to get the double-paned windows, insulation and other soundproofing.
”If we`re not moving, we want the soundproofing,” Griseto said. ”After all, how can the noise get worse?”
”Hey, if it`s free, I`ll take it,” said Matt Lloyd of 1209 Medinah St., Bensenville. ”The homes that got it would increase in value. If they want to give us air conditioning, that`s fine by me.”
But Abel Ayala, who lives at 16 W. 605 2nd Ave., Bensenville, said he doubts that soundproofing would help.
”What happens when the houses fall down from the planes flying so low?” Ayala said. ”All my drywall shakes when the planes fly over. All the windows shake. They need to make structural improvements, not just (install)
soundproofing.”
Roy Miller, who lives at 5952 N. Ruby St., Rosemont, said that he already has air conditioning, double-pane windows and insulation, and he still can hear the noise.
But Miller added that he has lived in the house for 24 years, and, ”I`m staying here. I don`t want to move . . . The planes don`t bother me. You get used to it after a while.”