Chicago fined for closing Meigs Field
By Jon Hilkevitch
Tribune transportation reporter
Published September 6, 2005, 8:57 PM CDT
Chicago will have to pay a $33,000 civil penalty this month or request a hearing in connection with its unannounced shutdown of Meigs Field 2½ years ago, the Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday.
An FAA investigation determined that city aviation officials failed to provide the required 30-day notice before Mayor Richard Daley ordered bulldozers to carve large "X's'' into the runway at the lakefront airport after midnight on March 30, 2003.
The FAA last October assessed penalties of $1,100 a day, covering 30 days.
"We are saying either send us a check for $33,000 or request a hearing'' before an administrative law judge, said FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory.
The Daley administration is reviewing its options, said city Law Department spokeswoman Jennifer Hoyle.
The mayor said he closed Meigs based on security concerns after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He said small planes flying near downtown created a potential terrorist threat.
Meigs supporters accused Daley of using public safety as an excuse to get out of his 2001 agreement with then-Gov. George Ryan to keep Meigs open in exchange for Ryan's supporting expansion of O'Hare International Airport. The mayor's wife, Maggie, has long sought to transform Northerly Island, which included Meigs, into a nature park.
An FAA letter to the Chicago Aviation Department dated Aug. 31 said the city has 15 days to pay the $33,000 penalty or ask for a hearing. Hoyle said Tuesday that the city had not been "officially served yet.''
Attorneys for the city unsuccessfully appealed the $33,000 fine in December. They now can make a final appeal for a hearing or pay the fine.
Meanwhile, the FAA has a related case against the city for using $1.5 million in federal grants and airline passenger taxes to demolish Meigs, which has been turned into a city park and concert venue.
The $1.5 million was earmarked to make repairs at O'Hare. The FAA could order the city to repay any improperly used funds or impose penalties of up to $4.5 million--three times the amount of the diverted money.
The city has told the FAA that its use of federal funds to demolish Meigs was legal. The case is still open.
The FAA has no authority to order the reopening of Meigs.
The city disclosed in December that removing Meigs' runway and restoring Northerly Island to parkland cost $2.9 million--almost twice as much as Chicago Park District and city officials had estimated.
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