FAA gives O'Hare expansion preliminary green lightParishioners plan to fight cemetery relocation By Cheryl BurtonJuly 28, 2005 — The FAA has approved the environmental impactstatement for the city's plan to expand O'Hare Airport. The mayor isalready talking about when the city could start construction, butopponents say not so fast. ABC7 Video Thursday's approval means that the FAA sees no major obstacles thatwould stop the city's plan from moving ahead. However, it is not thefinal decision. That is expected in September. But this plan is facingsome emotional opposition, and for first time the FAA addressed theissue. "This brings us closer to breaking ground on the project in September.This is good news for Chicagoans because O'Hare is the engine to theregion's economy," said Mayor Daley. Mayor Daley talked Thursday about moving forward with the O'Hareexpansion project, after the FAA announced that it backs the city'splan to ease congestion at the nation's most delay-prone airport.Mayor Daley says this proposed plan would create between 50,000 and195,000 jobs and pump $18 billion into the city's economy. Plus, itwould save $750 million caused by delays, the mayor said. This 440-acre expansion would require the city to purchase and teardown more than 500 homes, displacing at least 2,600 residents. Itwould also require the relocation of nearly 200 businesses a cemeterywith 1,300 tombs dating back to the 1800's. St Johannes gravesite is located steps away from the end of runway9-right/27-left and sits directly in the path of a proposed newrunway, 10-center. "We've looked every possible way regarding the cemetery to see ifthere's a way to minimize the impact to the cemetery," said TonyMolinaro, FAA. The FAA says it has considered moving, shortening, even eliminating10-center to avoid having to move the remains of 1,300 people. But theFAA says none of those options would work, so the graves must berelocated. "We have no intention of just going quietly into the night andallowing the City of Chicago to start up its bulldozers in the middleof the night and destroying the remain of our family members. It'sjust not going to happen," said Bob Sell, St. John's Church. Bob Sell has five generations of family members buried at St.Johannes. His congregation sued, contending that moving the gravesiteswould be a desecration of holy ground and a First Amendment violationof religious expression. "The courts have been our salvation. The courts have been the lastplace we can get a fair day and get the facts out in public," saidCraig Johnson, Elk Grove mayor. Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. says the FAA is ignoring a recentreport by the US Department of Transportation showing the city hasunderestimated the cost of expansion by billions of dollars. A FAA spokesperson says the environmental report released Thursdaydoes not analyze the city's financing plan. There will be a separatereview of the financing if the plan gets final approval