Local politicians are dissatisfied with parts of the project, its future remains unclear
A new airport in Chicago’s south suburbs could create thousands of jobs and deliver $1 billion in economic benefits, according to a new report, but state and local officials expressed concern about the future of the long-delayed project.
According to a study by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute, a think tank with ties to the labor movement, building a cargo airport in the southern suburbs could create a total of about 6,300 new jobs.
The plan for an airport in the southern suburbs has been proposed and discussed in various forms for decades, with the first proposals coming in the 1960s. The state has commissioned several studies on the feasibility of the plan since the early 1990s.
While previous proposals included passenger service, the current plan calls for a cargo-only airport between Beecher and Peotone. The state currently owns 89 percent of the land needed to build such an airport.
In 2019, lawmakers allocated $162 million in capital funds to build a new interchange at Interstate 57, which would at least partially bring more traffic to the area where the airport could be built. Construction is expected to begin in the current fiscal year, which the report says will create an additional 1,500 jobs and boost economic activity by $314 million.
In addition, the airport would generate approximately $24 million in economic activity each year and $2 million in state and local tax revenue annually, the report said.
“Once the airport is built in the southern suburbs, it will have these long-term positive effects long after the construction phase,” ILEPI economist Frank Manzo said in an interview.
Mary Tyler, ILEPI’s transportation director and co-author of the report with Manzo, noted that the south suburban region has become a freight hub in recent years as a result of the rise of e-commerce.
“You have I-57. You have the inland port and navigable waterways in Joliet,” she said. “It’s obvious because you can see that Will County has already grown so much in terms of distribution centers and all the other freight growth that the industry already sees this as a key area.”
Tyler noted that cargo traffic at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and in Rockford nearly doubled between 2010 and 2022. Air cargo traffic in Rockford alone grew 273 percent during the same period, partly due to e-commerce giant Amazon building a facility there in 2016.
“The Chicago area is ready for air cargo,” Tyler said.
The Illinois General Assembly recently took several steps to advance construction of the long-delayed south suburban airport.
In 2023, state lawmakers passed a law requiring the Illinois Department of Transportation to develop a process to require contractors and other developers to submit plans.
An IDOT spokesman said the agency is currently working on a “request for proposals,” a first step in the bidding process for major projects of this kind, but the agency has not yet released it.
Earlier this year, lawmakers revisited the issue and passed a bill allowing IDOT to accept unsolicited bids for the project. That bill still needs to be signed by the governor before it can go into effect.
Rep. Will Davis (D-Homewood), who sponsored both bills, said in an interview he was frustrated with the project’s slow progress. He said the state’s political leadership had “failed to bring us all together” to move forward with development.
“When we talk about growth and development in the state of Illinois, there is hardly anything better than an airport,” Davis said.
Davis pointed to Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, Texas, as an example of the kind of development he would like to see in the southern suburbs. That airport, which opened in the late 1980s, serves as a regional hub for FedEx and Amazon Air.
“Why wouldn’t we want such a flourishing development in Illinois?” he said.
Davis said there is “excitement” about the project in his district, which includes Harvey and Oak Forest.
But some in Will County, where the project is to be implemented, remain opposed.
Senator Rachel Ventura (D-Joliet) voted against the two most recent airport bills and continues to oppose a cargo airport in the region.
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.
“The entire burden lies with the residents here,” Ventura said.
Ventura also said Will County residents and local officials are “desperate” and feel they have no say in the airport discussions.
Judy Ogalla, who was first elected to the Will County Board in 2012 and will run for board 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 pieces of land near her that was not purchased by the government as part of the airport construction.
She said the airport was “unnecessary,” adding that the state’s large land holdings were limiting development opportunities for communities like Peotone and Beecher.
“The growth of these communities has been stunted,” she said.
She also pointed out that because of the large share of land owned by the state, some local governments, such as a nearby water conservation district, have lost tax revenue that they otherwise could have used to do their work in the roughly 20 years since the state began buying up land.
“I think there is a better use for the land,” Ogalla said.
Ogalla is instead advocating for the land to be used for agricultural research and training, a plan the council has also included in its recent state legislative agenda.
