After successfully negotiating the expansion of O’Hare International Airport, Mayor Richard Daley and Gov. George Ryan immediately faced new obstacles Thursday, including whether the agreement could be quickly locked into federal legislation.
Some lawmakers raised questions about whether the two leaders will be able to find a legislative solution for cementing the deal because Congress is preoccupied with other issues ranging from an economic stimulus package to homeland security.
Meanwhile, the first of what is expected to be a host of lawsuits challenging the $6.6 billion O’Hare project was filed as Chicago aviation officials began the complex task of transforming Daley’s concept for modernizing the airport into a formal application to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The suit, filed by the Village of Bensenville against the state, contends that the Illinois Department of Transportation withheld documents purportedly showing the runway expansion project will lead to increased jet noise, cause further harm to the environment, introduce safety risks for airline passengers and cost billions of dollars more than advertised.
FAA officials said that despite Daley’s eagerness to win quick approval of his airport proposal, the plan faces a long and complicated review process that will examine many issues–including those cited in the lawsuit.
“If Congress passes legislation instructing the FAA to expedite the process, we will adhere to it,” said FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro.
Ryan addressed the lag time in building new air capacity for the region when he was asked by reporters Thursday when passengers at O’Hare would first notice any benefits.
“It’ll be awhile, I’m sure,” Ryan said. “Just to get the land they need and to get the things they need through the process to extend the runways and to build the runways will take years.”
Construction of a western-access road into O’Hare, part of the agreement Daley and Ryan reached Wednesday night, probably will take 15 to 20 years, Ryan predicted.
Daley’s support for Peotone
The deal between the two, culminating years of wrangling over expanding O’Hare, also calls for constructing a third regional airport near Peotone while keeping Meigs Field open at least until Jan. 1, 2006.
Ryan won a concession from Daley by getting the mayor to offer his support for the south suburban airport. The governor said the state is still in the early phases of buying land for the airport, but he mentioned the importance of the compromise he struck with Daley to help lobby for federal funding for Peotone.
Questioned about his new role Thursday, the mayor was unenthusiastic.
“I have to support and lobby, I guess,” Daley said. “I don’t know what that is.”
The formal agreement that Daley and Ryan signed does not spell out Chicago’s obligation in helping the Peotone project. But John Harris, the city’s first deputy aviation commissioner, said that by signing on to the wording that the approval of Peotone “shall be conducted on an expedited basis,” the mayor threw his support behind the project.
Daley was coy about the possibility of seeking to close Meigs at the first opportunity in 2006. Asked if he would like to close the one-runway airport, Daley replied: “I can’t answer that. I just came to an agreement on this issue. Sometime I will [comment], but this isn’t appropriate because last night we had an agreement.”
Under the deal, the airport would remain open until 2026. But after Jan. 1, 2006, the General Assembly can vote to shut it down.
Ryan: `It was a compromise’
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Ryan, who during an interview in his statehouse office said he felt an adrenaline rush when he and Daley clinched the airport deal Wednesday night, rejected the notion that the mayor out-negotiated him in winning the governor’s approval of the southern runway at O’Hare Daley wanted.
“He gave in on Meigs,” Ryan said. “It was a compromise.”
As the final step to secure the overall agreement, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and U.S. Rep. Bill Lipinski, both Illinois Democrats, introduced measures in the House and the Senate on Thursday that would inscribe the deal in federal law. Durbin said he may attempt to attach the airport deal to a bill as early as Friday.
But Mike Stokke, deputy chief of staff to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), rated as “no better than 50-50” the chances that the agreement will be passed into federal law this year.
“In our view you don’t really need any federal legislation anyway. All you need is the agreement,” Stokke added.
That assessment, however, is not shared by Ryan, Daley and many members of the Illinois congressional delegation, who insist the only way to prevent future governors or legislatures from unraveling the hard-fought airport deal is to wrap it in federal law.
Fitzgerald, Jackson blast deal
The primary obstacle to quick passage is Senate procedural rules that make it difficult to attach new provisions to spending bills if the subject was not addressed earlier in the year. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.), a long-standing opponent of O’Hare expansion, could invoke those rules to obstruct spending legislation that included the terms of the agreement.
Fitzgerald said he had not decided how to respond to the Daley-Ryan deal, but he labeled Durbin’s effort in the Senate “a Peotone-killer.”
“There’s no cost justification for Peotone if there is a massive expansion of O’Hare,” Fitzgerald said.
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), who opposes expanding O’Hare and instead favors construction of the south suburban airport, said he would work to defeat federal legislation affirming the agreement.
“This so-called compromise sets federal precedent by guaranteeing improvements at O’Hare while giving lip service to Peotone. It appears the governor gave the mayor everything he wanted, but got little concrete in return,” Jackson said.
Despite the recognition of Peotone in the deal Ryan and Daley worked out, supporters and opponents of the third airport questioned what impact that would have on the getting the airfield built. The vast size of the O’Hare project, they said, could make Peotone unnecessary.
“If proponents of a Peotone airport believe this agreement makes them a winner, they’re sadly mistaken,” said Anthony Rayson, a founder of the anti-Peotone group Shut This Airport Nightmare Down.
Around O’Hare
In the suburbs around O’Hare, which have opposed any effort to bring more flights to the airport, news of the deal raised questions about its real impact.
Dotti Ellis, who owns a RE/MAX real estate outlet in downtown Park Ridge, said she got a call Thursday morning from a woman whom Ellis sold a home to last year near the proposed southern runway. The woman wanted Ellis’ opinion on what the airport deal will do to the value of her house.
“Do I tell her to panic and sell? No,” Ellis said. “They should wait and see. Maybe Congress will block it.”
Daley, meanwhile, scoffed at the first lawsuit challenging the O’Hare project, saying, “That’s what lawyers are for.”
The suit, filed in DuPage County Circuit Court by Bensenville Mayor John Geils, used the Illinois Freedom of Information of Act to seek all IDOT documents on the airport expansion.
“We want this information because when the details of this deal become subject to public scrutiny, the whole fantasy O’Hare scheme will fall on its own weight,” Geils said. “For all anyone knows, Chicago pulled some numbers out of its hat.”