Pushing forward with its plan to begin acquiring suburban property for expanding O’Hare International Airport, Chicago aviation officials Wednesday encountered both anger and resignation among property owners whose homes and businesses the city wants to buy and demolish.
The audience that turned out to hear for the first time what kind of offer Chicago is willing to make acknowledged that if they wanted to battle the city they may be waging an unwinnable war.
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“I think they’re saying, `You work with us now or we’ll break your arm later,'” said Bensenville resident Mike Lorenzo of Chicago’s efforts to persuade residents and business owners to sell their property voluntarily before the city moves to condemn.
The meetings Wednesday night came hours after the Daley administration introduced an ordinance in the City Council outlining the boundaries of the reconfigured O’Hare and authorizing the city to begin relocating the suburban property owners. The ordinance could be approved as soon as July 10.
Mayor Richard M. Daley vowed to treat property owners fairly, and city officials said more than 70 property owners have expressed interest in selling to Chicago. The city wants to purchase 648 properties in Bensenville, Elk Grove Village and Des Plaines, at a cost of $300 million to $350 million.
“We take this process very, very seriously,” Daley said. “We will treat property owners fairly, and we will work with them to make this transition as smooth as possible.”
The largest group of homes and businesses affected are in Bensenville, the suburb on O’Hare’s southwest side where opposition has been the strongest. But the city chose to hold the meetings in Des Plaines, a town whose leaders have left the organized suburban group fighting expansion.
In Manzo’s Banquets on Elmhurst Road, more than 350 people from the three suburbs gave city officials and their 15-minute presentation a cool reception. The city also made the presentation in Spanish.
City officials politely defended their right to buy the properties, assuring owners they wouldn’t have to vacate their homes and businesses for at least four to six months. But many in attendance said they felt like they were being pressured.
“Let’s sit down and deal with this and negotiate,” said Tom Zver, who would lose his photo identification card business on Irving Park Road to the expansion. “I’d rather do it this way than fight them all the way along. The key is that they are fair.”
While city officials have said they hope the purchases will come from willing owners, they have also noted that they eventually will have to raise the stakes and go to court to condemn property needed for the project.
Bensenville’s village president, John Geils, who this week asked residents to boycott the sessions with the city, characterized the meetings as “meaningless” because he said Chicago lacks the legal authority to acquire the properties.
Opponents of the project, including Bensenville, have already made that claim in DuPage County Circuit Court, in an attempt to get a restraining order to stop Chicago from acquiring any land. The suburbs argue that the city cannot legally acquire property within another municipality and must receive a state permit to proceed with the purchases and expansion.
A judge is expected to hear arguments on the case July 9, the day before the City Council may vote on its ordinance.
“We want to slow the train down,” Geils said. “Our alternative is to do nothing. And we’re not going to do that.”
Despite the effort to block the city’s plans to expand the airport, property owners such as Ron Loris, an owner of a townhouse near Irving Park and York Roads, said he knows he’ll have to deal with the city eventually. And that will mean bad news for Bensenville residents, he said.
“All these years the airport has artificially lowered the value of these homes,” Loris said. “These people are not going to be able to find the same homes for the price you give them somewhere else.”
Under the city’s proposal, Bensenville would lose 533 homes and 55 businesses. The city also wants to buy five commercial parcels occupied by 53 businesses in Elk Grove Village; six homes and 47 businesses in Des Plaines; and two businesses in Chicago.
Geils has answered the city’s proposal by asking Bensenville families whose homes have been targeted to give the village the right to buy the homes first. The village has promised it will pay $5,000 more than the city’s best offer. Although the village has yet to draw up the papers for residents to sign, Geils said more than 100 homeowners have indicated they are interested in signing the deal.
Daley was skeptical of the village’s proposition, sarcastically declaring Bensenville’s coffers “must have millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars” to cover the cost.
The city has said it would pay fair-market value for the properties, moving costs and as much as $22,500 to homeowners to help offset losses from the acquisition of their property.
“I think we have enough money,” Daley said. “When you buy something, you have to have money. You can’t just sit people down and say, `We’d like to buy your land but we don’t know when we are going to buy it–maybe in 2050.'”
John Harris, first deputy commissioner for the Chicago Department of Aviation, said the city intends to open a field office next month on the airport’s east side where city officials will be on hand to answer inquiries from property owners.
The cost of Chicago’s acquisition program would be financed by general aviation revenue bonds that would be retired by money generated by the airport, officials said.
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Bensenville officials, meanwhile, said they would also borrow the money, from local banks and lenders, and said the village is prepared to spend $15 million to $60 million.