Bensenville Accepts O'Hare Buyout
By Marcus Gilmer in News on Nov 17, 2009 3:00PM
The battle between Bensenville and the City of Chicago, due to the O'Hare expansion project, is over. The Tribune reports that under a new agreement, the demolition of houses could begin as early as December; the village agreed to end the fight in exchange for $16 million plus an additional $20 million more from the City of Chicago to insulate homes and schools from noise pollution caused by the planes flying in and out of O'Hare. The city will also hire consultants to assist in the demolition and will partner with the village to aid Bensenville in economic development. The village's long fight against O'Hare took a turn this spring when Frank Soto won election as village president; Soto called the agreement, "a victory for Bensenville."
Even though the city has cleared this big hurdle, there are still others remaining. For starters, there's the ongoing fight about the relocation of the St. Johannes cemetery, which is owned by St. John's United Church of Christ. There's also the issue of resistance from the airlines themselves. And, as the Trib's John Hilkevitch explains, there's still the issue of money.
The airport project faces a $130 million shortfall, according to the latest estimate from Chicago officials. But that figure does not include $417 million needed to build a key taxiway for the next planned runway, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Despite these other obstacles, the city remains optimistic in the wake of the Bensenville deal - Hilkevitch reports construction has already begun on the runway that would go over where the embattled cemetery - about the project being completed by its originally proposed end date of 2014.