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Advocate Wants to Turn Peotone Airport Site Into Regenerative Center

  • Writer: Bob Benenson
    Bob Benenson
  • Apr 30
  • 3 min read

Bob Heuer Explains His Concept in This Contributed Article



This image, provided by author Bob Heuer from a report by the Illinois Department of Transportation, shows the location of the proposed Peotone airport (light blue) in relation to the city of Chicago and its south suburbs
This image, provided by author Bob Heuer from a report by the Illinois Department of Transportation, shows the location of the proposed Peotone airport (light blue) in relation to the city of Chicago and its south suburbs

Bob Heuer is a longtime advocate of a better, more local food system. His HNA Networks, based in Evanston just outside Chicago, helps agri-food, nutrition & conservation organizations find success in America's regional economies. The HNA consulting team delivers products and services to accelerate organizational success in the transformation of local and regional food systems into self-sustaining complements to global food supply chains.


An opponent of a long-stymied but persistent proposal to build a third Chicago-area airport in Peotone, a farm community about 40 miles south of downtown Chicago, Bob is launching a campaign to block the plan — and replace it with a Regenerative Agriculture Research and Development Center. He contributed the following article about his concept


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Turn Peotone Airport Site into Regenerative Agriculture R&D Center

By Bob Heuer/HNA Networks


In 1985, the State of Illinois began spending tax dollars to plan a commercial airport in the Will County countryside near the village of Peotone. The Peotone saga began when suburban sprawl was king. The next chapter could become an opportunity to rediscover the value of food and farming for Chicago’s regional economy.


Twenty-five-years ago, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) bought seven square-miles of Peotone-area real estate and removed it from the property tax rolls. (An IDOT contractor leases most of those 4,200 acres to corn and soybean farmers.) This land grab was presented as phase one of a plan to build a “South Suburban Airport” several times the size of O’Hare.


That pipe dream fizzled. Now airport proponents are pushing a Plan B.


In 2026, the Illinois General Assembly is expected to consider a bill authorizing a private developer to turn the site into a cargo airport. (Proponents don’t mention the fact that UPS is investing in nearby Gary Airport in Indiana. Nor that cargo distributors make good use of the Midway, O’Hare, Rockford and Milwaukee airports.)


The people of Illinois deserve policymakers to weigh actual alternatives. After all, this economic development strategy is basically unchanged since first proposed seven governors ago.


May 8 Forum


Next Thursday (May 8) at noon, I’ll unveil an alternative plan for the Peotone Airport land on a Zoom forum entitled “Regional Agriculture: Looking Ahead and Acting Today.” The forum is hosted by a 330-member nature conservation coalition called Chicago Wilderness Alliance.


I’ll be joined by Tim Brennan, the Alliance’s Growing with Agriculture Committee co-chair. Tim will examine the economic, social and climate forces reshaping agriculture across the entire Great Lakes region.


I will then introduce an initiative called "Growing Chicagoland's Local Farm Economy." The project aims to mobilize Alliance members to work with both community-centered and commercial-scale agriculture.


A broad coalition is taking root to build a thriving and inclusive food system in the four-state, 38-county Lake Michigan Basin Region. At this forum, the Alliance will begin to tackle big questions:


  • How do we protect farmland before it disappears?

  • How can we prepare agriculture for a changing climate?

  • What role do regional food systems and infrastructure play in building resilience?


More Sprawl, or Healthy Soil and Bodies


Peotone airport proponents envision replacing some of the planet’s best farmland with asphalt, concrete and rooftops. We envision a Regenerative Agriculture Research and Development Center. “Peotone” could become known as a place where people learn, teach, experiment, grow, process and sell food and other agricultural products for generations to come.


Airport proponents see an opportunity to create short-term construction jobs and low-wage distribution center jobs from an airport that would replicate what already exists nearby. We see the starting point for Land of Lincoln leadership on a regenerative agriculture trend that— according to a 2024 Rockefeller Foundation report—has begun to drive food and farming adaptation to changing climate conditions worldwide.


Click the button below to register for the May 8 Chicago Wilderness Alliance Cafe: “Regional Agriculture: Looking Ahead and Acting Today.”








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