On the day that handshakes sealed the Lake Calumet airport deal, many in the suburbs clustered around O`Hare International Airport found little to celebrate.
As part of the agreement, a regional airport authority will eventually control Lake Calumet and O`Hare, and that agency may in time solve the nettlesome noise problems that have afflicted O`Hare`s neighbors.
But there is no guarantee of a suburban voice on the panel or how much influence the suburbs will bring to bear.
Likewise, O`Hare neighbors received no assurance that no new runways will be built during the years it will take to build Lake Calumet, although Gov. Jim Edgar reiterated Thursday that he believes runway expansion at O`Hare won`t be needed.
What is likely, though, is that once the new airport on the Southeast Side opens early in the next century, the economic engine that is O`Hare will lose steam.
Lake Calumet will limit additional demand on O`Hare, and the phenomenal growth that the airport has powered in northwest Cook and Du Page counties is expected to level off.
Mayor Richard Daley took one last shot Thursday at the suburban officials who, with their noise abatement demands, gave airport negotiators so much grief in the last few weeks.
”I will move everything possible out of O`Hare field,” he joked. ”I pledge that to the people out there. I will make it a state park.”
Some in the suburbs think that would be fine. For them, noise from the ever-growing number of flights jamming O`Hare is intolerable.
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But others, particularly business leaders who have seen their fortunes rise along with O`Hare`s flights, think the value of the airport to the regional economy is the paramount concern.
Pro-runway voices said that noise foes, in pushing for noise relief by demanding a ban on new runways, threaten the region`s economic future. Business leaders said they were relieved that Edgar did not specifically ban runway expansion at O`Hare as part of the deal.
On Thursday, both sides vowed that, despite the agreement, they would continue their fights for and against new runways. But many in the suburbs believe the region already has lost something on both the noise and economic fronts.
”We`re pleased they didn`t make any major concessions on O`Hare expansion,” said Edward K. ”Ned” Loughridge, a Schaumburg insurance executive and immediate past president of the Northwest Association of Commerce and Industry, which favors new runways.
”We see that as a step in the right direction,” said Loughridge. ”If you were to stunt O`Hare`s growth and flight delays continued, then the airlines are going to look elsewhere.”
The business group says the noise issue can be addressed adequately by soundproofing schools and through a federal phase-out of older, noisier aircraft by 1999.
On the other side of the debate are those represented by the Suburban O`Hare Commission, which wants a runway prohibition, an immediate ban on late- night flights of older, noisier aircraft and a phase-out of those planes by 1996.
But in the end, the suburbs not only were cut out of the Lake Calumet deal, they lost the opportunity to get at least a conditional promise of no new runways, an offer Daley made and then took off the table as negotiations dragged.
”I`m dismayed, frustrated and shocked,” said Elk Grove Village President Charles Zettek, vice chairman of the Suburban O`Hare Commission.
”We thought any agreement would bring about noise relief to the suburbs, that it would address noise and air pollution,” Zettek said. ”We thought it would be an integral part of the deal. Unfortunately, we found out it was not.”
Though Edgar promised that he would give the suburbs a voice on the airport authority, Sen. Martin Butler (R-Park Ridge) said, ”Suburban interests are pretty much ignored. I`m disappointed.”
Butler said the suburbs should be represented by someone who understands what it is like to live with airport noise.
”If it`s someone from Wilmette or someplace like that, it doesn`t mean anything,” Butler said.
Because it is not spelled out in the agreement, the suburbs can rely only on Edgar`s word, reaffirmed Thursday, that he would oppose new runways at O`Hare unless the suburbs agreed to them.
”The governor is the key to the livability of this agreement,” Butler said. ”He absolutely has the power to make or break this area as a good place to own a home and raise a family.”
But not all suburban leaders are of the same mind as Zettek and Butler.
Northbrook Village President Richard Falcone wants to see O`Hare grow and worries about a worst-case scenario in which Lake Calumet robs O`Hare of most of its current commercial air carriers.
”I`m concerned a third airport will erode the economic vitality of the northern suburbs and even the city of Chicago,” Falcone said.
”O`Hare has had a major impact on the business community, on office and retail development, on home building and on real estate values.”
Indeed, residents themselves are of two minds on O`Hare. A Tribune public opinion survey of the northwest suburbs conducted last summer showed that respondents were divided on whether new runways should be built at O`Hare. But more than half believe O`Hare is so important to the region`s economy that people should put up with the noise.
Even those closest to the airport recognized the economic benefits, while opposing new runways. Another Tribune survey conducted in Du Page County in December showed similar results.
While Lake Calumet is not expected to steal any current jobs away from the northwest region, it is expected to curtail future growth of the area from the immediate vicinity of O`Hare in northwest Cook and Du Page Counties all the way out to McHenry and Kane Counties.
But others are optimistic that the O`Hare economic boon will continue.
”Business will not move from a facility that meets their needs,” said Stanley Klyber, executive director of the Greater O`Hare Association of Industry and Commerce.
”Certainly the south area has the open land for growth and economic development to occur. But I don`t see that much impact on this area unless service is caused to deteriorate at O`Hare to such an extent businesses can no longer get the services they need.”
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Joseph V. Karaganis, attorney for the Suburban O`Hare Commission, contended that O`Hare has nothing to fear from Lake Calumet. Chicago`s own studies, he said, estimate that O`Hare will be handling 940,000 flight operations a year by the year 2020, up from about 800,000 at present, and Lake Calumet will be handling perhaps 860,000 flights a year.