Stinging Letter Sent to Six Mayors
Lack of Airport Plan Lamented
BELLEVILLE, IL (October 18, 1999) -- St. Clair County Board Chairman John Baricevic issued a harsh letter last month to the mayors of six cities invited to help control development around MidAmerica Airport. Baricevic declared the effort dead and said the communities had missed a chance to jointly handle problems with noise, development, competition and threats to Scott Air Force Base.
"It now appears to me that most of the municipalities are not interested in cooperation," the letter stated. "It appears that the status quo of standing alone and fighting with neighboring cities is the desire."
He said the county government was ready to give up control of the land to a joint zoning board, which would include representatives from the six communities. He said the board would avoid two problems Baricevic had seen at other airports: lack of a development plan for lands surrounding the airport and an agreement by the municipalities to cooperate.
"I have done all I can do. The future is in your hands. By this letter, I am directing my staff to cease all effort on this program," Baricevic wrote. "St. Clair County will proceed to develop MidAmerica Airport without your input. I hope you will be pleased with the product."
In an interview, Baricevic said O'Fallon bears the brunt of the blame for the failure of the joint effort. He saw the joint board as a way to avoid expansion problems at the airport if MidAmerica ever grows too big for its current borders.
O'Fallon's eleven member planning commission in August unanimously voted against participating in the joint effort. O'Fallon Mayor Gary Graham, however, said he wants to revive the issue and welcomes more negotiations.
St. Clair County invited Mascoutah, Belleville, Lebanon, Shiloh, New Baden and O'Fallon to participate. Only Belleville and Lebanon approved the joint venture outright, while the others besides O'Fallon had smaller objections to the joint venture.
If completed, the joint airport zoning board would create a master plan for the 1.5 miles surrounding the runways of MidAmerica Airport and Scott Air Force Base and require a three-fourths vote of city councils to override that master plan.
Graham said he recently wrote Baricevic that the city is not entirely opposed to the idea, and suggested the county relax its three-fourths vo
te rule.
"I am in favor of joint airport zoning," he said. "There is room to work this out. Maybe a simple majority is all that is needed. I don't know if that's too small. Maybe two-thirds."
The joint board has been a goal of Baricevic's since 1996. With no commercial flights, MidAmerica is worlds removed from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, but Baricevic wants to avoid the problems the St. Louis airport is experiencing with the city of Bridgeton. Poor planning years ago left Lambert landlocked by homes and businesses, most of which will be wiped out by plans to expand the airport.
The master plan could avoid problems that may be decades down the road, Baricevic said. O'Fallon is close to the MidAmerica runway, while Shiloh and Mascoutah border closer to Scott's runway.
But Baricevic said if one of the cities doesn't participate, then it would unfairly bind the remaining participants, and, therefore the county wouldn't implement it.
"Quite frankly, I think a great opportunity has been missed here. If your citizens ask sometime in the future why your city has no say in the airport, please understand you could have," he wrote. "The JAZ Board is put to rest. If you wish to revive it, I will be ready to respond"
Information provided by the Belleville News-Democrat
Michael Shaw Article
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