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The Proposed Lake Calumet Airport: A review of the Issues

The Feasibility Study presents six conclusions in its description of -- and justification for -- a Lake Calumet Airport location, including:
(1) A major air carrier facility is feasible within the ground and airspace of the Lake Calumet site;
(2) The Lake Calumet site would provide efficient and effective air service to the entire region and is an economically feasible airport development alternative;
(3) A Lake Calumet Airport would rebuild the economy of the Calumet Region;
(4) An airport would improve the environment of the Lake Calumet area;
(5) The long development time for an airport permits future land use planning to minimize displacement; and
(6) By the time a Lake Calumet Airport begins operations, Midway Airport will be ready for redevelopment as a premier general aviation facility.

This report addresses several issues related to the first five of the foregoing six conclusions. To gauge the merits of the five conclusions, the Center for Urban Economic Development of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UICUED) examined airport construction histories from around the country with special attention paid to the ongoing construction of Denver International Airport (See Appendix for list of these airports).

With regard to the first conclusion, the Feasibility Study's estimate of some 900 nearby residences that would be exposed to uncomfortable noise levels is too low when one considers that --based on the Denver experience and confirmed by the FAA during environmental impact public hearings -- airplane flight paths are not fixed and predictable. Lake Calumet-area residents could ameliorate noise impacts by having the FAA restrict airport takeoffs in "noise sensitive areas," as occurred in Denver. Additionally, initial airport land acquisition programs never seem to acquire sufficient acreage to handle future airport growth requirements. Lake Calumet area residents should anticipate further encroachment into their communities.

The proposal to build an airport in the Lake Calumet area may not be as economically feasible as claimed. The imminent -- or existing -- economic recession, possibly unfavorable volume and mix of projected enplanements, and still uncertain revenue sources may render a less favorable verdict on the project's feasibility. Also, the currently estimated $4.9 billion project development cost needs to be escalated to reflect future price levels, cost of money, and more likely environmental cleanup costs.

The economic benefits of the proposed airport appear to be overstated. Instead of a total jobs multiplier of 5, something on the order of 2.5 seems more likely -- based on the experience of New York-area and Denver Airports. The number of permanent jobs created by the project needs to be balanced against those likely to be lost -- due to industrial and commercial displacements -- so that total net jobs created or lost can be ascertained. In any case, there will need to be incentives in place to encourage local hiring and retraining if residents of the Lake Calumet area are to derive maximum benefits from the new airport's economic development impact.

Based on the limited amount of information presented in the Lake Calumet Airport Feasibility Study, it may be premature to claim that an airport would "improve the Lake Calumet area environment. The $224 million estimated as the cost of waste removal is not based on any rigorous scientific determination of the nature and volume of such waste nor on any idea as to where the waste can be moved to. According to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, existing local capacity for solid waste material is likely to be exhausted by 1994 to 1996. At least one critic of the Feasibility Study's plans for wetlands mitigation strategy concludes that a Lake Calumet Airport and the proposed mitigation plans are mutually exclusive. Also, it is not clear how the Feasibility Study's environmental and wetlands mitigation strategies would be paid for.

Finally, displaced homeowners and tenants in the Lake Calumet area should be compensated for the loss of their properties at replacement values rather than at market values. Residential real estate values can be expected to decline due to the announcement of the new airport.

Lake Calumet area community organizations may still influence the decision-making process and outcomes related to the design and location of the third airport. There are three official quasi-public committees that are charged with the responsibility of researching third airport feasibility issues and then formulating a recommendation: The Policy Committee, The Citizens Advisory Committee, and The Technical Committee. All meetings are open to the public and are coordinated by the staff of the Illinois-Indiana Regional Airport Program Office in Matteson, Illinois.

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UIC-Center for Urban Economic Development