Airport Noise in Park Ridge?? (Chicago, Evanston: house, purchase, school)
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We are considering a move to Park Ridge - our budget is around $1M, have three small kids. I have heard that there are some areas in Park Ridge to avoid due to Ohare noise, can somoene who lives there give me some feedback on street boundaries to avoid? Also, what about north vs. south of the town center?
I know there will be other people with more details, but thought I'd chime in. We really, really wanted to make Park Ridge work for us since my husband's office is in Bucktown (we have two young kids that aren't in school yet as well).
However, we are very discouraged because of the current noise from the airport as well as the promise of increased noise by 2020 when three more runways are complete. I will try to find the links and add them to this post if that helps. So for us, it was too big of a gamble, both in the quality of life and as a financial investment. Could we really ever know that our relatively quiet home in Park Ridge won't be directly under a new flight plan in the next couple of years?
That being said I would be thrilled to hear that I'm wrong!
Thank you chisub. We are moving from Denver so I haven't a clue where buck town is. Are you somewhere close to park ridge? My husbands office (and reason for the move) is in the blue cross building downtown. We really like north Evanston and parts of wilmette - I feel like we are all over the map there are just so many options. We want to stay north to make wisconsin trips more viable.
BCBS used to be located across from Millenium Park on Randolph so I assume it still is. Your husband could walk to work easily if he could get to the L and there is a stop in Wilmette so if you can afford it that would be something to seriously consider. The purple line will stop on Randolph a couple blocks West of the building. Most of the metra trains end in the West loop or there is a station for South loop but neither of these would be quite as convenient for your husband if he was opposed to driving to/from the city for some reason. Wilmette is considered North Shore so it is a very nice, highly desireable area (arguably the most desireable in Chicago) with more convenient access to Wisconsin as you mentioned than some other areas.
I do not live in Park Ridge but live in the adjacent town of Des Plaines - we are the poor cousin of PR. PR is a crap shoot so you are taking a gamble but it is a desireable area - I guess many people consider the air traffic noise to be a tradeoff. My concern would be that Ohare can open up a new runway at any point so as the previous poster mentioned just because there are no plans now for a runway directly over your house doesn't mean there wont be in the future. Keep in mind all they have to do is announce intent to drop your property value.
I do not agree with statements like "O'Hare can open up a new runway at any point" &"Park Ridge is a crap shoot" because I know that is an EXTREMELY slow and costly process to change the configuration of one of the busiest and most vital airports in the nation. The flight patterns that are possible with high rises hemming in basically all sides of O'Hare are very unlikely to change.
The northern most runway at O'Hare does basically align with Belleplaine Ave though in all honesty the dense Forest Preserve probably gets the worst of the noise. Fortunately when the trees are leafed out the noise is greatly diffused. Folks in DesPlaines to the West of 294 and east of 90 take the brunt of the noise.
Take a close look at an overhead view of the area and even the diagonal runway that does require plane to skirt the edge of the Maine East campus (which does not serve students from ParkRidge) really is not close enough to cause any serious concerns.
That's actually good to hear, Chet! Does anybody have a good resource for all the expansions? All I really see are articles stating that there will be three new ones by 2020 (the current planned expansion) and it will affect Park Ridge, but I'd like to see more details. Thanks!
Chet you can disagree all you want but it doesn't change the fact that around the airport increases in air traffic noise will drop property values. I will say it again - anyone who decides to purchase in Park Ridge is risking their home value - you are at the whim of Ohare airport. The runway over the northern part of PR dropped home values in that area when it was opened and all you have to do is contact any realtor in Park Ridge that specializes in Park Ridge and ask.
Here is a link I posted earlier - http://www.oharenoise.org/PDFs/maps/..._Version_4.pdf (broken link)
You cannot stop Ohare from opening up a new runway regardless of whether it is costly or it takes time. Opinions of people like us do not dictate what, where or when they will open up another runway so anyone purchasing a home there needs to be aware of this. I doubt the people in Park Ridge want air traffic noise at all but it is going to continue to rise. I can ride a bike there in 5 minutes and I promise you airplanes are a problem and airplane noise is an ever present fact of life. If you purchase a home in Park Ridge you will hear the rumble of jet engines regularly and no forest preserve or leaves on trees are going to make living there quiet. I cannot count how many times I have been on a cell call where I had a hard time hearing the person I was speaking to in Park Ridge because of a jet.
The only new runway in the FAA approved plans for O'Hare is at the SOUTHERNMOST portion of the airport and it runs due east/west. The potential for any noise from 10R/28L to actually REDUCE noise to towns like Park Ridge is the strongest arguement for the "expansion" that was planned in an earlier era (before 9/11) when air traffic was increasing. There is no support for increased flight operations on the horizon.
The newest runway causing issues in Park Ridge is 9L/27R this is at the extreme northern end of the airport and handles about 15% of the landings. Chet is basically correct in that any expansion will be on the southern edge of the airport with more east/west runways. Ideally these will reduce some of the landings on 9L/27R and reduce noise in Park Ridge.
I can't see a scenario where O'Hare expansion will negatively impact Park Ridge, actually it's the opposite.
I am not sure how to debate what you and Chet are saying other than to present you with my source of data. You are both entitled to your opinion and I respect that. I live in the area marked 8 in Des Plaines and according to this plan for noise will actually be declining on the North side of Park Ridge but increasing in the middle and southern portions.
Regardless given that I live in very close proximity to Park Ridge and am in Park Ridge a couple times a week to me there is no debating that jet noise can regularly be heard, it is a nuisance and a serious detractor for the area. If I am interpreting this document correctly and noise levels are going to increase I have to stick to my initial assertion that Park Ridge could be set up for further decline in property values given what happened on the North side when noise levels increased there and that prices in Park Ridge tend to be inflated anyway when comparing it to neighboring areas.
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