Dec. 16--While Chicago officials have long dismissed expanding Midway Airport, the city has quietly gobbled up surrounding land--including parcels that could be used for a protection zone at the end of the runway overshot last week by a Southwest Airlines jet.
In just the latest acquisition effort around the landlocked airport, the city in 2004 passed an ordinance allowing the purchase of land "for use as Runway 31C/13C Runway Protection Zone and airport development."
The Southwest jet skidded off that runway during a snowstorm Dec. 8, striking a car on Central Avenue, killing 6-year-old Joshua Woods and injuring 10 people.
The city's ultimate plans for the land remain unclear. The ordinance shows that the city has set its sights on land at the end of the runway. But officials said Thursday they have no plans to build a protection zone there.
"We have always said we cannot undertake a massive land acquisition program to build a protection zone, and we have no plans to do so," said Erin O'Donnell, a deputy Chicago aviation commissioner who manages Midway.
Since 1990, the city has been involved in 93 transactions to acquire land around Midway. The 2004 ordinance authorizes another four purchases that have not been completed. Including purchases dating to 1948, the city has spent $52 million on nearly 400 parcels around Midway.
Many of the purchases were for other purposes, such as terminal and parking expansion, and "object-free zones" that keep the airport's perimeter clear for planes.
Federal regulators have urged the city since 2000 to improve the safety of Midway's runways, some of the shortest in the nation for a major airport. But the city has not submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration an acceptable plan for how it will prevent planes from overshooting runways.
O'Donnell said even if the city were in favor of a plan to build buffer zones, it owns nowhere near enough land for the project. She said it would also require moving major roads and railroad tracks.
The Woods' attorney said he was not aware the city owned so much land near the crash site.
"This tragedy would have been avoided. It's outrageous," said Ronald Stearney Sr.
Discussion of Midway expansion has always been politically thorny. On Thursday, Mayor Richard Daley dodged questions about the city's failure to buy enough land to make the runways longer and potentially safer.
Asked specifically if he would be open to Midway expansion, Daley said the accident investigation must first be completed.
"You can't speculate," he said. "Sure everybody would like to expand anything, but you just can't do it. I mean we have taken over 10 years to get the runway built at O'Hare Field and we are just starting now."
It is difficult to tell that the city owns the land.
A search of public records turns up only a few properties with the City of Chicago listed as the owner. In more than 300 transactions, the Cook County recorder of deeds search lists "no record found."
That's because in 2001, at the city's request, the county consolidated 382 city-owned parcels, eliminating their individual property identification numbers. O'Donnell said the purpose was not to make the records less accessible to the public, but to make it easier for her staff to track all the tax bills and leases. She said she would check with county property officials to ensure that records of the transactions are more readily accessible.
"The intent is that everything that we do is transparent. ... Our intent is not to provide misleading information," O'Donnell said. "We have nothing to hide."
The airport's most recent acquisition took place in April, when it spent $220,000 for nearly a half-acre of commercial property and a two-story building at 5935 S. Archer Ave., only a few hundred yards from the site of last week's fatal crash.
Its former owner, Gene Richards, said the city gave him an ultimatum: Sell or be condemned.
"They offered us a price that wasn't that good," said Richards, 74, who was interested in selling anyway. "But we sold and they demolished it."
O'Donnell said Richards' assertions of an ultimatum are "mistaken."
She said the acquisition program is voluntary, and she provided a letter from Richards' wife offering the property for sale to the city.
O'Donnell said the Richards parcel was purchased to expand an adjacent employee parking lot.
O'Donnell said that despite the 2004 ordinance, the property was never intended for runway expansion. She said the wording was used in the ordinance because the property was within the protection zone.
"We are encouraged by the FAA to control as much property within the Runway Protection Zone as possible," said airport spokeswoman Wendy Abrams. "The land was acquired in accordance with FAA regulations and programs."
The city's land acquisition on the airport's northwest side extends to Archer Avenue, where auto body repair shop owner Ron Norris said he has no choice but to sell.
"You can't stop it," said Ron Norris, whose family has owned Norris Auto Body since 1981.
Norris said he received a letter from the city about 18 months ago and has been told his property will be turned into additional employee parking. He said the city initially offered him $430,000, but after an appraisal was made, the offer was raised to $610,000.
Aaron Gellman, a professor at Northwestern University's Transportation Center, said he sees no need for the city to buy land for runway buffers for an airport with a stellar safety record.
But Gellman said he suspects prices will be driven up for the city after the accident and publicity about the FAA urging that buffer zones be established. "The fact that the FAA has indicated that they prefer that, may be enough to drive the prices up," he said.
Stearney, attorney for the family of the boy killed last week, was outraged by the city's claim that it is buying land for employee parking instead of to improve safety.
"It's even worse, it's more of a black eye on them," he said. "It's not for safety, but we are going to have a garage for the employees."
Tribune staff reporters Jon Hilkevitch, Ray Gibson, Gary Washburn, Carlos Sadovi and Dan Mihalopoulos contributed to this report
