Feb 25, 2008 6:31 pm US/Central
Bensenville Home Torn Down For O'Hare Project
Residents And Village Government Vow To Fight Demolitions
BENSENVILLE, Ill. (CBS) ―
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The City of Chicago demolished its first Bensenville house in a step forward of the O'Hare Modernization Project.
CBS
The village of Bensenville has one less house Monday night. The tear-down is part of a battle 30 years in the making.
Normally a home demolition wouldn't make news, but as CBS 2's Katie McCall reports, normally airports don't land in residential neighborhoods.
The city's O'Hare Airport expansion program tore down it's first ever home in Bensenville to make room for a runway.
When you look around the neighborhood at the homes that have been purchased by the city -- complete with signs and boarded up windows -- and when you hear the executive director talk, it all sounds like a done deal.
"The program is moving forward," said O'Hare Modernization Program Executive Director Rosemarie Andolino. "And on November 20, 268 days from today, we will be cutting ribbons on two new runway projects and an air traffic control tower."
The city has already acquired 549 homes -- 90 percent of what it needs -- but Bensenville says it will continue to fight on behalf of homeowners who are determined to stay.
"They got my backing 100 percent," said Bensenville homeowner Dan Figueroa.
Figueroa's neighborhood is almost totally vacant, but he's not sure what he'll do.
"I don't think with all the land this was really necessary to buy people's homes to tear it down," he said.
"We stand tall," said Bensenville Village Manager Jim Johnson. "It's a David and Goliath saga and we are literally fighting city hall and we're proud of the fact."
A court order is holding the bulldozers back from the other homes -- for now.
The city goes to court Tuesday to try to demonstrate it can safely demolish the others.
The home that was torn down Monday had been damaged by arson and vandalism, so Bensenville agreed to the demolition and says it is purely symbolic.
"This was a just another PR stunt," Johnson said. "We've come to expect that from the City of Chicago."
But with 522 houses vacant, the city is promising more of this in the near future.
One other obstacle for the expansion program is the planned relocation of a cemetery. The church that owns the St. Johannes Cemetery is appealing to the Supreme Court after the 7th Circuit Court granted the city permission to take its title.
There is no word on whether the high court will hear the appeal.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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