O'HARE — Despite the city's offer to rotate the O'Hare Airport runways that are used at night in an effort to spread out jet noise, residents angry about the racket said the plan was inadequate and vowed to continue their fight.
Although Chicago Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans asked members of the Fair Allocation in Runways Coalition to drop their fight to change the airport's flight paths, the group called the city's latest proposal "unfair" and said it would fight a plan that would mean "more planes over more people in a narrow, highly residential geographic area."
The group told Evans in a letter sent Friday that while what city officials called "comprehensive effort" to address the outcry about jet noise seemed "in theory, like a positive proposal" it would actually offer "very limited noise relief."
"In fact, this proposal will impact the exact same neighborhoods east and west currently enduring frequent, constant disruptions and do nothing to direct flights over less populated areas," according to the letter signed by group leader Colleen Cichon-Mulcrone. "Nor does this proposal promote a more fair distribution of flights over neighborhoods during the daytime hours when people want to enjoy their yards and parks, conduct business in their homes or have windows open."
Mulcrone's letter also expressed skepticism that cargo planes — which are among the loudest — would be able to use different runways as outlined in the city's plans because of their size.
The meetings that took place in July between coalition members and city aviation officials should serve as the "beginning" of a conversation designed to to reduce the jet noise that the group contends has lowered property values and made it impossible for Northwest Side residents to watch television, sleep or enjoy their yards, the coalition told Evans.
The city's plan "balances the need to preserve O'Hare as an economic engine for the city and the ability of the world's busiest airport to be a good neighbor to communities surrounding the airport," said Owen Kilmer, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Aviation.
Evans last week called the proposal to rotate runways an "ambitious, unprecedented and aggressive" proposal to reduce noise at night that will be a "significant step forward" for residents under the flight path.
City officials and coalition members also disagree about the fate of two diagonal runways.
While residents see the runways as the last, best chance to reduce the roar of jets over the Northwest Side, city officials contend the runways — built in the 1950s — are "fatally flawed" and pose a safety threat to airline passengers throughout the city.
U.S. Reps. Mike Quigley, Tammy Duckworth and Jan Schakowsky have called for city officials to keep the diagonal runways open, echoing the coalition's demands.
City officials plan to take the diagonal runway on the east side of the airport out of service as scheduled Aug. 20.
The next east-west runway is expected to open Oct. 15, officials said
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