South suburban airport could bring over $1B in economic activity, per report

A new airport in Chicago’s far south suburbs could bring thousands of jobs and $1 billion in economic impact, according to a new report, but state and local officials expressed concerns about the future of the long-delayed project.

A study from the Illinois Economic Policy Institute, a think tank with ties to organized labor, found that building a cargo-focused airport in the south suburbs would create about 6,300 total jobs.

The plan for an airport in the south suburbs has been proposed and discussed in various forms for decades, with the earliest proposals coming in the 1960s. The state has commissioned several studies on the plan’s viability since the early 1990s.

Although previous proposals included passenger travel, the current plan is for a cargo-only airport between Beecher and Peotone. The state currently owns 89% of the land needed to build such an airport.

In 2019, lawmakers allocated $162 million in capital funding to build a new interchange on Interstate 57 to, at least in part, allow more traffic to reach the area where the airport could be built. Construction is set to begin in the current fiscal year, which the report suggests will bring in an additional 1,500 jobs and boost economic activity by $314 million.

The airport also would generate about $24 million each year in economic activity and $2 million each year in state and local tax revenue, according to the report.

“Once it is built, the south suburban airport would have these long-lasting positive effects well after the construction phase,” ILEPI economist Frank Manzo said in an interview.

ILEPI transportation director Mary Tyler, a co-author of the report alongside Manzo, said that the south suburban region has become a freight hub boosted by the rise in e-commerce over recent years.

“You’ve got I-57. You’ve got, in Joliet, the inland port, the navigable waterways,” Tyler said. “It’s obvious because you can see Will County has already grown so much in terms of distribution centers, and all the other freight growth, that the industry has already viewed that as a key area.”

Tyler noted that freight traffic at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago and in Rockford almost doubled between 2010 and 2022. Air freight traffic in Rockford alone grew by 273% over the same time, partially because e-commerce giant Amazon built a facility there in 2016.

“The Chicago area is primed for air cargo,” Tyler said.

The Illinois General Assembly recently has taken several steps to advance progress on the long-delayed south suburban airport.

In 2023, state legislators passed a law requiring the Illinois Department of Transportation to develop a process for requesting contractors and other developers to submit plans.

A spokesperson for IDOT said the department is working on a “request for qualifications,” an early step in the bidding process for large projects such as this, but the department has not released it.

Earlier this year, lawmakers revisited the subject and passed a bill that allows IDOT to accept unsolicited bids for the project. That legislation awaits the governor’s signature before it can go into effect.

State Rep. Will Davis, D-Homewood, who sponsored both bills, said in an interview that he is frustrated with the project’s slow progress. He said that political leadership in the state has “failed to bring us all together” to push the development forward.

“When we talk about growth and development in the state of Illinois, it doesn’t get much better than an airport,” Davis said.

Davis pointed to the Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, Texas, as an example of the kind of development that he’d like to see in the south suburbs. That airport, which opened in the late 1980s, serves as a regional hub for FedEx and Amazon Air.

“Why would we not want a thriving development like that in Illinois?” he said.

Davis said that, in his district, which includes Harvey and Oak Forest, there is “excitement” about the project.

But some in Will County, where the project is slated to be built, remain opposed.

State Sen. Rachel Ventura, D-Joliet, voted against both recent bills dealing with the airport and remains opposed to a cargo airport in the area.

In an interview, she said the boom in warehouses and freight traffic in recent years has contributed to increased flooding and higher maintenance costs for local roads.

“All of that burden goes to the residents here,” Ventura said.

Ventura also said that Will County residents and local governments are “exasperated” and feel like they have not had a seat at the table during discussions of the airport.

Judy Ogalla, who was first elected to the Will County Board in 2012 and elected as the board’s chair in 2022, lives near Peotone. Ogalla is a longtime critic of the airport plan and has pushed the board to oppose the project.

She calls her home an “island,” one of the few parcels of land near her that hasn’t been bought by the state as part of the development of the airport.

She said the airport is “unnecessary,” adding that the state owning so much land has impeded the abilities for communities such as Peotone and Beecher to grow.

“In these communities, their growth has been stunted,” she said.

She also noted that because the state owns so much of the land, some local governments, such as a nearby water conservation district, have lost out on tax revenue that otherwise would have supported their operations in the estimated 20 years since the state started purchasing land.

“I think there’s a better use for the land,” Ogalla said.

Ogalla instead advocates for using that land for agricultural research and education, something the board included in its most recent state legislative agenda.

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