On the agenda [pdf] for tonight’s Park Ridge City Council meeting is the adoption of a resolution [pdf], the substance of which reads as follows: 

The City of Park Ridge believes strongly that continued expansion at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport will not enhance the overall quality of life for its citizens. Roughly 6,000 Park Ridge households, which is 42% of all Park Ridge homes, are affected by changes in flight paths resulting from the O’Hare Modernization Plan. The City of Park Ridge seeks mitigation solutions for noise and pollution resulting from continued expansion at O’Hare and vehemently opposes and seeks course correction on continuing expansion at the airport. 

This resolution was just adopted by the City’s O’Hare Airport Commission (“OAC”) at its May 28, 2010, meeting [pdf], so we wonder how it got on the City Council’s regular agenda so quickly, and without first being considered by the Council’s Procedures and Regulations Committee.  We also wonder why Ald. Robert Ryan (5th), who seems to have taken over from Ald. Don “Air Marshall” Bach (3rd) as the “Council Liaison” to the OAC and was in attendance at the OAC’s May 26 meeting, didn’t raise the procedural question at that time? 

Presumably the procedural issue will be sorted out tonight, but we still need to question the purpose and wisdom of such a Council resolution…and at this time. 

In the first place, we note that the OAC appears to be made up entirely of people who live in that part of town most affected by the newest O’Hare runway (9L/27R).  There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, so long as they make sure they understand and represent the interests of the entire City – which may not be the case with their proposed resolution, especially if a good number of those “6,000 Park Ridge households…affected by changes in flight paths resulting from the O’Hare Modernization Plan” have been “affected” positively, such as the residents of the 1st and 2nd wards who now have fewer flights over their households because of the new runway. 

That being the case, we would like to hear the OAC folks explain exactly why those 1st and 2nd ward residents – and residents in parts of the 3rd and 4th wards, as well – should support a resolution that would appear to endorse one of the OAC’s other goals (as also adopted at the OAC’s May 26 meeting) of “ensuring the two northwest runways [22R and 22L] are not decommissioned” – something that would ensure that flights over those wards would continue even after O’Hare modernization is completed, contrary to current OMP plans. 

Beyond the point of whether such a resolution speaks for a majority of Park Ridge residents, what practical purpose does such a resolution serve at this time? What specific benefits will this community derive if this resolution is passed now?  Or, conversely, what specific harm will the community suffer if it isn’t passed now? 

Even if it seems as if the members of the OAC don’t remember all of the resolutions (and even referendum questions) regularly generated by O’Hare obsessed former mayor Ron Wietecha, we do.  And we also remember that by 2001, when the federal government (at the behest of Sen. John McCain and several Democratic congressmen) pressured then-governor George Ryan to cut a deal with Mayor Daley on O’Hare expansion, those resolutions no longer meant a thing.  

We suspect that was one of the reasons (along with the voters’ election in April 2003 of new aldermen Don Crampton, Howard Frimark, Mark Anderson, Rex Parker and Jeff Cox – all of whom had campaigned against continued membership in Wietecha’s beloved Suburban O’Hare Commission) why Wietecha abruptly resigned his mayoral office and subsequently exiled himself to Barrington. 

So before the Council approves this kind of resolution, we think the OAC owes the whole Park Ridge community much better explanations of why this resolution is needed…and why it is needed now.