"Oakland frets about stalled airport plan: Port ponders appeal of court decision"

Saturday, September 1, 2001 
 
Oakland frets about stalled airport plan Port ponders appeal of court
decision
By Don Fogleson
The San Francisco (CA) Chronicle


Stunned by a court ruling that grounds the $1.4 billion expansion of
Oakland International Airport, Port of Oakland officials said yesterday
the decision could delay the project for months. 

"It's clearly bad news, with the potential for substantial delay," said
the port's aviation director, Steve Grossman. 
The port is considering appealing Thursday's ruling to the state Supreme
Court or going back to the Court of Appeals for clarification on
developing a more comprehensive environmental impact report. 

The appellate ruling ordered more thorough studies on how the
six-year-long expansion would affect noise, toxic pollution and a rare
owl. The airport expansion had been scheduled to begin in about a year. 

Port lawyers huddled yesterday to digest the 58-page ruling on a lawsuit
brought by neighborhood activists and the city of Alameda, which is in
the airport's flight path. 

Grossman said it is not clear whether the ruling means developing an
entirely new EIR or just tweaking the existing one. He said he was
unsure how long a new report would take to develop, but that for every
year the expansion project is delayed, inflation alone drives up the
cost by $30 million. 

Katherine Trisolini, the San Francisco lawyer who won the case, believes
the ruling calls for a whole new report. 

The original EIR failed on several fronts, she said, especially in
identifying and mitigating all potential air contaminants produced by
increased air traffic, which port officials forecast would nearly double
by the end of the decade. 

And because the expansion calls for a dramatic increase in nighttime air
cargo traffic, the EIR was too general in detailing the impact on
residential areas beneath the flight paths, she said. 

Grossman said the ruling was a surprise and a disappointment since "we
felt we had put together (an EIR) that complies with all the state laws
and all previous rulings." 

Port attorney David Alexander said he could have a recommendation for a
Port Commission course of action as early as Tuesday. 

The port is on the verge of the first overhaul of the airport since the
1960s. When a new multilevel terminal is finished, the Bay Area's third-
largest airport will have 50 percent more gates and a five-story parking
garage, new rental car operations and a right-of-way for a possible rail
link from the Coliseum BART station. 

Barbara Tuleja, president of the 4,000-member Citizens League for
Airport Safety and Serenity, which was part of the suit, said she was
pleased that her organization's campaign has been vindicated. 

"We won on everything that we asked (the court) for," she said. "When
you go to court, you expect to win some, but not in this way." 

Alameda City Councilman Tony Daysog, who has rallied airport opponents
in the past, characterized the unanimous court decision as "a
David-versus- Goliath situation." 

"We felt we were going up against this huge organization hell-bent on
expansion, expansion, expansion, with little concern for the small guy."

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