"Airport Land Use: Housing may move closer to Florida airport"

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Housing may move closer to airport
Noise study recommends changes in regulations
By ANNE MITCHELL
The Southwest Florida News-Press


A new noise and land compatibility study recommends allowing residential
development closer to Southwest Florida International Airport.

The airport's citizen advisory board approved a plan Monday that recommends
changes in aircraft flight paths and sound-level reduction measures in new
homes in certain areas.

It also OK'd parking fees for the midfield terminal - scheduled to open next
spring - with little change from existing rates.

The noise study still needs approval by the port authority board and the
Federal Aviation Administration before it can go into effect.

A public meeting is scheduled for Jan. 10. It will be part of the regular
joint meeting of the port authority board and citizens advisory board
starting at 9:30 a.m. at the airport training center.

Previous public meetings on the noise study have been conducted in the San
Carlos and Gateway areas.

One objection that has already surfaced is from Richard K. Bennett, trustee
of about 2,700 acres of vacant land that lies on both sides of Daniels
Parkway, adjacent to the airport.

Bennett's attorney, William A. Keyes Jr., said his client objects to the
noise contour line used in the study and any land-use regulations based on
that line.

Keyes called the proposed amendment arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable.
"Its adoption will constitute the taking of my client's property without
payment of just compensation," he said in a letter to the port authority
dated Monday.

In a July 6 memo on Bennett v. Lee County, Lee Circuit Judge James H. Seals
said the county is using the airport noise zones "to limit development to
commercial and industrial uses instead of allowing individual property
owners to use their property as they choose ..."

Greg Hagen, port authority attorney, said Monday that the case is still in
litigation.

"This is a study and may some day result in changes to the land development
regulations, but the study itself doesn't do the things that are claimed in
that letter," he told the board.

Projections show that takeoffs and landings at the Fort Myers airport will
increase from about 76,000 in 2003 to almost 100,000 in 2008.

Mark Fisher, the airport's director of development, said airports are "like
magnets." When Southwest Florida International was planned, Daniels Parkway
was a two-lane dirt road, and the many gated communities and other
development there today did not exist.

The amended study, he said, "reduces restrictions on landowners around the
airport while preserving noise standards."

The port authority has an ongoing noise complaint hot line. The number is
338-5777.

As for the new parking rates, the free-parking period - popular with meeters
and greeters - stays, but is cut from one hour to 20 minutes.

Airport managers didn't want to eliminate it altogether because they say it
helps security staff by keeping vehicles away from the terminal curb when
people drop off and pick up friends and relatives.

The free parking was originally created as a temporary measure in the winter
season. It worked so well, it was kept year-round.

There will be no economy lot. Long-term parking remains at $2 an hour, or
$10 a day with a new weekly discount rate of $56. Short-term parking will
continue at $3 an hour with an $18 daily maximum.

The midfield terminal will have more than 11,000 parking spaces compared
with about 4,000 at the current terminal. Airport officials refused Monday
to give an update on the latest work on the terminal.


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