Over the next few months, members of the bi-state panel charged with choosing among five sites for a third major regional airport will be staying up late, reading more than two dozen detailed studies to help them name a winner.
Among the data will be comparisons of building costs, how airport noise will affect surrounding areas, the number of people and businesses that will have to be moved, and the hazardous waste and other environmental problems at each location.
In short, there will be everything needed to make an objective decision on the best place to put an airport equivalent to about 15,000 football fields.
But indications are emerging that the site-selection decision may be much more political than objective and that the technical studies may not make that much of a difference.
A formidable alliance appears to be taking shape between Indiana Gov. Evan Bayh and Mayor Richard Daley in favor of Daley`s proposed Lake Calumet site on the city`s Southeast Side.
Indiana and Chicago have 7 of the 11 votes on the bi-state selection panel, more than enough to determine a site winner.
Evidence of a coalition surfaced even before last week when officials released maps of the five sites that pinpoint airport boundaries and runway layouts at each location.
Indiana and Chicago officials now are agreeing publicly that an expansion of Gary Regional Airport or construction of a new field near Lake Calumet would make much more sense than building on any of the three rural sites under consideration.
One of those ”green grass” sites straddles the Illinois-Indiana border with its center about six miles southeast of far south suburban Crete. Another is centered about five miles northeast of Peotone and stretches north almost to the doorstep of Monee. The third is half in Will County, half in Kankakee County, with its center about 9 miles west southwest of Peotone.
Officials of both Indiana and Chicago have staunchly denied any deal to act in concert. But members of both camps acknowledge they are on the same wavelength and even have used the same phrase to describe it-”commonality of interest.”
And Bayh even has gone so far as to say Lake Calumet is his second choice if and when it becomes clear that Gary is unfeasible. The 35-year-old governor, who is thought to have presidential ambitions, adds that he would be willing to negotiate with Chicago, presumably over such issues as jobs and representation on an airport authority.
Construction of an airport at either of the urban sites would create thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic development for both Gary and Chicago`s Southeast Side, two depressed areas with significant unemployment.
But they also would displace thousands of residents; in the case of Gary, that could come to more than a fifth of the city`s 116,000 population.
Some supporters of the green grass sites believe that a Daley-Bayh bargain has been struck.
They point to an alliance between the two earlier this year when Indiana and Chicago representatives on the bi-state committee joined forces, over the objections of Illinois members, to take away a vote on the committee that had been promised to Wisconsin.
The fact that Indiana and Chicago`s seven votes dominate the selection committee has not been lost on officials of Illinois, which possesses the remaining four votes.
The Illinois delegation fears an Indiana-Chicago coalition will push through one of the urban sites even if the technical studies indicate a green grass location is superior.
There already has been an effort to present research data on the five sites in such a way that the committee members will have more leeway in making their choice.
Originally, the firm that has been hired to do the nitty gritty study and analysis, TAMS Consultants Inc., was going to rank the five sites in order of preference for the selection panel. But its instructions now are simply to provide a ”matrix” of information about each site, leaving the committee room to draw its own conclusions and assign its own weight to various factors. Sources close to the bi-state committee say Chicago is trying to force TAMS and Donald Corinna, the project manager for the study, to present data in a manner that would not put the Lake Calumet site in a particularly unfavorable light.
Robert Repel, Daley`s aide in charge of watching over the city`s interests in the selection process, is known to have approached some committee members about Chicago`s desire to fire Corinna and replace him with someone who might be more sympathetic to the city.
Repel and Indiana officials have refused comment.
The bi-state committee is scheduled to announce its choice by year-end. But its decision will not necessarily be a final one.
That`s because the Illinois Department of Transportation must approve construction of any airport built in the state, a provision of Illinois law that gives Gov. Jim Edgar veto power over the committee`s recommendation.
Republicans who favor the rural locations could apply pressure on Edgar if the committee recommends Lake Calumet. And politics aside, if the panel chooses the Chicago site and the consultant`s studies clearly show that it is inferior, the governor could reject it.
But Repel expressed confidence the studies will show the Chicago site as the best and that Edgar would respect a Lake Calumet choice by the committee. From Edgar, the project goes to the Federal Aviation Administration for approval, an agency now under the aegis of U.S. Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner. Skinner has voiced strong support for the bi-state selection process. He also helped Daley enter the Lake Calumet site into the race after an earlier committee had narrowed the options to Gary and the three rural sites.
Originally, Chicago didn`t want to be part of the process, arguing that a third airport was totally unnecessary.
Though city officials now say they have changed their minds about the need for another airport, some Illinois officials and others believe Chicago still would be happy if no airport were built.
That would leave the city with an airport monopoly at O`Hare International and Midway Airports.
More specifically, the fear is that if a Lake Calumet site is chosen, it will later prove untenable because of the costs of relocating not only people and factories, but toxic materials as well.
Meanwhile, residents near each of the possible sites who are concerned about the disruption an airport could bring are carefully watching the selection process.
Some of them, however, also feel the fix is in.
”The policy committee won`t even read the report,” predicted Gloria Weidner, an opponent of airport development from the Kankakee area. ”We`re not stupid. We know this is a political decision.”
