Park District refuses reasonable requests for changes to planning process

The Chicago Park District has refused a request by supporters of Meigs Field to modify its process for planning for Meigs Field. Last October, the Chicago Park District announced that it would seek public input on the future of Meigs Field (aka "Northerly Island.")  The Friends of Meigs Field --though concerned about how such a process might be conducted -- determined to work cooperatively within the system as long as that system was fair, open-minded, and inclusive.

When the first planning meeting was held, several concerns were identified, including censorship of ideas, disrespectful and divisive statements by Park District representatives, and the lack of public hearings on the closure of Meigs.  The Friends of Meigs Field requested five specific and reasonable changes to the process.

• One or more public hearings on the closure of Meigs Field.  The current meetings are not public hearings, are not held before decision-makers, and have no opportunity to present written or oral testimony. The only hearings since 1996 on the closure of Meigs Field were in 2001, from which the decision was made to preserve the airport until 2026.
• Display of all relevant proposals to the development of Northerly Island.  Friends of Meigs' Parks and Planes proposal was specifically excluded from display at the planning sessions.  When Friends of Meigs complained, all other organizations' proposals were also censored.  We believe that the best approach is to air all ideas.
• Modification of the "visioning" exercise to include images of mixed-use park/airstrip/air museum elements similar to those proposed in the Parks and Planes proposal.
• An opportunity to present the Parks and Planes/Bessie Coleman Skypark proposal to the head of the Park District and the Mayor of Chicago.
• A commitment by the Park District to cease disrespectful, divisive and knowingly false statements by officials and to correct the record when statements are shown to be false or misleading. The Park District did not reply before the second of seven planned meetings, and no changes in the process were observed at that meeting.

Instead, on January 3, Mr. Arnold Randall, Director of Planning and Development for the Park District replied via letter, saying "concerns about airport development can best be addressed through the City of Chicago, who manages airport operations... It is not our intention to conduct any planning sessions that focus on airport development or any area that is not strictly related to park development."

In other words, there is to be no public say on either the decision to close Meigs nor the possibility of a park/airstrip combination, no matter how good it may be.

Welcome to Chicago!

FMI:  www.friendsofmeigs.org, Letter to Park District (Adobe Acrobat PDF), Reply from Park District (Adobe Acrobat PDF)