Initial Proposals Stanley Berge, a professor at
Northwestern University, first proposed a Peotone airport site on November 13, 1968. His main arguments for the proposed site were that it could have fast access to
Chicago by rail and highway, that the potential site was far enough from O'Hare Airport to avoid the airports interfering with each other's flight patterns, that it would have all-weather flight safety, and that the site was environmentally compatible with the surrounding area. Berge envisioned a
high-speed train service to
downtown Chicago. The Peotone site was an alternative location to a proposed lake site announced during Chicago Mayor
Richard J. Daley's 1967 inaugural speech. The Chicago Public Works and Aviation Department worked cohesively with the Federal Aviation Administration during the Johnson and Nixon administrations from January 1967 to January 1970 to develop a litany of needed consultant reports beginning with an appraisal report, a summary of engineering reports, and graphic simulation studies for both a land and lake site. On January 27, 1970, Daley shelved plans for the airport, stating, "It was not necessary until the year 2000." Following 15 years of investments at both O'Hare and Midway airports in the early 1970s, some northwest suburban leaders became concerned over noise issues at O'Hare Airport, which was the busiest airport in the world at that time and an economic boon for
Chicago metropolitan area. Leaders from suburban
DuPage County and suburban northwest
Cook County attempted to apply political pressure to control the expansion and enhancements of O'Hare, but the airport received numerous expansions and upgrades over the next three decades. State House and Senate legislators tried three times to pass a Metropolitan Airport Authority bill from 1985 to 1987 in an effort to alleviate airspace noise and pollution from the airport, but the bill never passed. Legislators compromised on a resolution, which awarded $500,000 for a transportation study for a proposed third Chicago area airport.
Viability Studies In 1986, state legislation created the Illinois Airport System Plan Policy Commission (IASPPC). The commission had bipartisan and tri-state support from the governors of
Illinois,
Indiana, and
Wisconsin. Commissioners chose consultant
Peat Marwick to develop the aviation studies. The first capacity study concluded that O’Hare and Midway airports alone could not accommodate the expanding Chicago aviation market, and the study recommended for another airport to be built. Senator
Aldo DeAngelis of south suburban
Olympia Fields advocated for the Peotone site, stating that "economic considerations would override political ones in choosing a location" for the airport. The City of Chicago had acquired three seats on the IASPPC, bringing the total to eleven. Political pressure by the City of Chicago resulted in IASPPC members voting to eliminate all rural sites from the final vote. The final selection was between
Gary Airport and Lake Calumet, a lake and region in Chicago that the airport would be built in proximity to, and the mayor's preference. The Lake Calumet site was selected and Chicago Mayor
Richard M. Daley, the son of Richard J. Daley, attempted to put a legislative bill through during the end of the state legislative session. The cost of the Lake Calumet site was $10.8 billion. State Senate President Pate Phillips did not support the bill, as it would have cost the state $2 billion for its share. It took four tries in the State House before it reached the State Senate. By July 1992, Mayor Daley declared the airport issue dead and focused on further expansions and enhancements of O'Hare and Midway airports.
Initial Planning Planning for the South Suburban Airport began in 1984 as a cooperative venture between the states of Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, the city of Chicago, and the
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has stated that the Chicago area needs a third airport to handle growing air traffic. After many studies, the airport location alternatives were narrowed to five sites in 1990. The state of Illinois submitted an Environmental Assessment to the FAA in March 1998 for approval of the development of an airport at a site in eastern Will County. The FAA prepared a Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for site approval and land acquisition and issued a Record of Decision (ROD) on the Tier 1 EIS in July 2002, which approved the Will County, Illinois, site as a technically and environmentally feasible location for the development of a potential future air carrier airport in the south suburban area of Chicago. The
Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) began purchasing land for the Will County airport site in 2002, with funding of $75 million earmarked by the Illinois FIRST program. The state has purchased about half of the required for the plan. The current plan is in flux, as the position of the runways has continued to be debated.
Eminent domain cases are also working their way through the courts. About three million people live in central and south
Cook County, Illinois;
Will County, Illinois; and
Lake County, Indiana, which puts them in reasonable proximity to the proposed airport in Peotone. The airport is also expected to serve travelers from all over the Midwest. In June 2008, the
Gary-Chicago International Airport, in
Gary, Indiana, announced an agreement with three local railroads (
Norfolk Southern,
EJ&E, and
CSX) that will allow the relocation of railroad tracks so that the airport's runways may be expanded. The longer runways will allow the airport to handle larger aircraft. In March 2011, Illinois Governor
Pat Quinn announced his intention to start construction "as fast as humanly possible" on an airport in Illinois; however, the FAA had not finalized plans yet, and the land acquisition was still being completed. In June, U.S. Secretary of Transportation
Ray LaHood noted that there had been little call at the federal level recently for the proposed Peotone airport. However, plans for the south suburban airport were still in progress.
Land Acquisitions and Infrastructure Laws The proposed airport is within the airspace of an existing airport,
Bult Field (C56), a once-privately owned airport with a 5,000-foot runway. On July 1, 2014, IDOT purchased Bult Field and some surrounding land for $34 million for the new Chicago-area airport. In mid-2023, a state law was passed to force IDOT to review proposals to develop and maintain the airport by the end of the year. ==Support==