Comprehensive land use plans set for Butte County Airports
After two years of work, the Butte County Airport Land Use Commission has adopted a comprehensive land use plan (CLUP) for its four public-use airports. Chico Municipal Airport, Oroville Municipal Airport, Paradise Skypark, and Ranchaero Airport all are affected by the new CLUP. The plan has been submitted to the cities where each of the airports is located and Butte County. Each municipality has 180 days to bring its general plan into compliance with the CLUP.
The new CLUP is expected to have the greatest impact on Chico Municipal Airport, which has been operating under a 22-year-old plan. Some members of the Butte County Board of Supervisors and the Chico City Council have indicated that they will try to override the airport land use commission's decision to adopt the CLUP. Meanwhile, Airport Support Network volunteer Brian Baldridge, the commission, and the North Valley Pilots' Association are planning a campaign to educate elected officials and the public about the importance of the airports to their respective communities and the need to protect these sites from further incompatible development.
While the CLUP will not affect existing development near the county's four airports, it does attempt to protect traffic pattern and approach areas from future incompatible land uses. At Chico, for example, the plan suggests that one neighborhood should have no more than one home per five acres, although the property already has five or more homes per acre.
Developer proposes vote on future of Hawthorne Municipal
The battle over the future of Jack Northrop Field/Hawthorne Municipal Airport continues with a developer's proposal to put closing the airport to a vote — and AOPA Airport Support Network volunteer Gary Parsons is in the middle of the fray.
Dan Weinstein of the development company Paladin Partners LLC is asking the Hawthorne City Council to bring the question of closing the airport before the city's voters. Weinstein said that the vote would give city residents a choice between an airport that generates a profit of only about $60,000 per year or a retail development that would bring many minimum-wage jobs to the city while putting more tax money into city coffers.
During the Christmas season, Weinstein's company conducted an extensive telephone survey of Hawthorne voters. The leading questions used in the survey prompted respondents to express support for closing the airport. Weinstein believes that a vote on the future of the airport would yield the same result.
Weinstein said that once a vote is held, he will seek the help of local elected officials in approaching the FAA with an offer to pay back Airport Improvement Program grants that require the city to continue to operate the airport until 2011. So far, the FAA has declined to accept repayment of the grants, adding that repaying the grants alone would not allow the city to close the airport.
Parsons said that Weinstein has expressed some surprise about the vehemence of the opposition to closing the airport, and that Weinstein's firm may decide to abandon development plans as a result. Paladin Partners was granted an 18-month exclusive right to "study the highest and best use of the Hawthorne Airport land" in August 2000.
McClellan to come under county control
The former McClellan Air Force Base is scheduled to be turned over to Sacramento County in July, and the county has asked Caltrans Aeronautics for a permit to operate the airport as a publicly owned, public-use facility.
Sacramento County already has entered into an agreement with a large real estate developer to create the McClellan Air Park. Under the agreement, portions of the facility will be sold for commercial and industrial uses. Some airport backers have expressed concerns that the air park may encroach on the airport operations property, but the extent of such encroachment is not yet clear. Initially, the airport operations area was to be restricted to private use in conjunction with aircraft maintenance and manufacturing operations. However, the county has since changed its mind and now plans to make the airport open to the public in order to be eligible to receive federal and state airport grant funds.
In addition, the county has reached an agreement to have Boeing Service Company manage the airport and has leased the former base operations building and several large hangars to Pacific Jets Corporation. Pacific Jets will use the facilities to operate an FBO providing charter flights, aircraft maintenance, and other aviation services.
AOPA works with agencies to protect Mather
AOPA California Regional Representative Jack Kemmerly is working with airport users as well as county, state, and development company officials to reach an agreement to protect Mather Airport in Sacramento.
The airport is being threatened by a proposed housing development dubbed Zinfandel Village. Developers had hoped to start housing construction in January but have been unable to find a suitable location for a school site within the development. Caltrans Aeronautics officials have said that they cannot approve a school site within the development because of the land's location under the traffic-pattern flight path for landing traffic. Attorneys for the developers, however, have insisted that the development will go forward and a school site will be approved, even if the airport must be closed to do it.
To complicate matters, airport users and Sacramento County airport staff want to extend the runway closest to the proposed development to accommodate heavy cargo traffic when the primary runway is closed for maintenance or emergencies.
Kemmerly plans to meet with all parties to search for solutions that will best accommodate the interests of all groups. One solution may be to extend the north runway (22R) to the west and displace the threshold for light aircraft. Doing so would move the traffic pattern to the west, reducing or eliminating the overflight problem for some portions of Zinfandel Village.
Nascar Raceway could affect Madera
Plans are in place to build a Nascar raceway about one mile from the departure end of Runway 30 at Madera Municipal Airport. Airport Support Network volunteer John Hall reports that airport users are concerned about a variety of issues relating to the proposed raceway. Those concerns include hazardous glare from lighting at the raceway, the effect of the raceway on approaches and missed approaches for Runway 12, possible blimp and other aircraft operations associated with events held at the track, and signs and towers that could interfere with flight operations.
School sites near Watsonville reconsidered
After a series of attempts to find a location for a new high school, the Pajaro Valley Unified School District settled on a 70-acre site near Watsonville Municipal Airport. But the district may now reconsider that decision after criticism from airport users, environmentalists, and others. While the school district selected 70 acres of strawberry fields, the Coastal Commission, which must approve the plan, could reduce the amount of usable land to 30 acres, in part to protect sensitive wildlife habitat. A series of closed-door negotiations between the Coastal Commission, Santa Cruz County, members of the school board, and environmental groups led to an agreement to allow construction of the school while limiting additional development in the area. However, now that the Coastal Commission has said that the size of the site would need to be reduced by more than half, the Sierra Club is encouraging the school district to seek a new site in a less environmentally complicated location. The school district must now submit a development plan to the city.
In other news affecting Watsonville Municipal, a firm hired to extend the runway has submitted its final engineering reports and now plans to begin the process of applying for FAA funding.
Redlands hires development consultant
The City of Redlands has hired a consultant from Schutt Moen to reevaluate the helicopter traffic pattern at Redlands Municipal Airport. Airport Support Network volunteer Robert Pearce reports that the decision to look at the helo pattern is intended to determine whether a proposed sports complex can be built near the airport. The sports complex would be located within 500 to 3,000 feet of the end of the runway.
Members of the Airport Advisory Board, which includes Pearce, have been working to persuade the city to use caution in considering the proposed development. Advisory board members are expected to meet soon with the city manager to discuss safety and land use issues associated with the development plan. Before the proposed development can go forward, the FAA and Caltrans Aeronautics must become involved in the process, which could take as long as a year.
