UNIVERSITY PARK (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Political, business, labor and religious leaders gathered in south suburban University Park Monday to promote legislation for a new cargo airport in the southland.
A third airport in the south suburbs has been talked about for 40 years and is still nowhere close to being built.
State Rep. Will Davis, though, will try again with House Bill 2531. The legislation would have developers weigh in with their level of interest and willingness to pay for a cargo airport. Davis said he hopes to bring his bill to the floor of the Illinois House in the next week.
“The southland has waited far too long for this opportunity to create this new economic development engine to replace the steel and the manufacturing plants that have once thrived in the southland but are, unfortunately, no longer here,” he said.
Promoters of the airport said it would mean 10,000 construction jobs and five times as many jobs afterward. They said it would be a new economic development engine for the southland.
State Rep. Debbie Meyers-Martin has been among those who support the latest effort to have an airport built in the southland.
“This will be a different kind of airport, built to serve industry, built to serve cargo carriers, built for e-commerce and logistics,” Meyers-Martin said.
To show how long people have been pushing unsuccessfully for a new airport, State Sen. Patrick Joyce said he wore a lapel pin that read, “Airport 2000.”
“We’ve waited long enough,” Joyce said. “It’s time to build a south suburban airport.”
Not everyone favors a new airport.
Jill Hornick, who lives in Crete Township, said she’s against having a new cargo airport built near her community.
“The families that moved to this area, bought homes [and] paid property taxes want a semi-rural lifestyle,” Hornick said. “They did not buy to have a cargo airport plunked down in their community.”
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She also said Will County doesn’t have the infrastructure to handle a new intermodal center.
Will County Board member Dan Butler also argued against an airport in his community.
“The people that live here are against it because this disrupts their families’ lives,” Butler said.
Butler suggested expanding Chicago-Gary Airport or continuing to make use of Chicago-Rockford Airport as a cargo airport hub.
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