The city of Chicago on Monday was awarded possession of a five-acre plot that has been a cemetery for the past 161 years. The land will be used to complete a new runway at O’Hare Airport.
The cemetery lies between two segments of a runway already under construction.
The Chicago Tribune reported that the relocation of 1,200 graves could begin within weeks. According to the newspaper, the city will work with next of kin to have graves moved and will pay the relocation costs.
DuPage County Judge Hollis Webster ordered that the city pay the cemetery owner, St. John's United Church of Christ, $630,000 for the land.
Webster ruled in December that Chicago had a legal right to use eminent domain proceedings to acquire the site from the church, which has argued against the city's plan, reported the Tribune.
City officials said the current schedule calls for the graves to be moved by spring 2011, enabling the new runway to be finished and opened by June 2013, said the Tribune.
