"Neighbors fear fate if PBIA gets runway add-on"

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Neighbors fear fate if PBIA gets runway add-on
By Jennifer Sorentrue
The Palm Beach (FL) Post


WEST PALM BEACH - Life is good in this small neighborhood in the shadows of
Palm Beach International Airport's flight path.

There are friendly neighbors, big lots and a grocery store within walking
distance. There's a neighborhood park with basketball courts, a baseball
field and a community center with day care and yoga classes.
 
And for the most part it's quiet, except when the airplanes pass overhead.
Even that doesn't bother many of the residents here too much. They've
learned to deal with it.

What they say they cannot deal with: a proposed runway extension that would
put more planes over their homes, or even worse, force them to sell their
land to Palm Beach County.

The Vedado neighborhood, just north of Southern Boulevard and west of Parker
Avenue, sits next to the 90-acre airport buyout zone, where roughly 350
homes in the former Hillcrest community were demolished or relocated in the
late 1980s because of airport noise.

And those who live here, including some who watched as homes in the
Hillcrest neighborhood were boarded up and bulldozed, fear their close-knit
community could meet the same fate.

"The fear is who is to say they don't get into this condemnation deal," said
Norman Owens, whose house borders the buyout area. "People who live here
don't want to lose their homes. If you look at the alignment of the runway,
everything's a possibility."

Owens has lived in his home for 40 years. He watched as houses in Hillcrest
were knocked down. He watched as his street, which used to pass through the
former neighborhood, was closed off at the end of his property line. And he
has watched as community leaders have tried to figure out what to do with
the overgrown land.

'It's so intimate and safe'

"We had some beautiful homes, older homes that people got run out of," Owens
said. "We are concerned because we don't know what they are going to do."

A small section of the neighborhood's 130 homes sits just south of an area
where the average day/night noise level reaches 65 decibels, or loud enough
to drown out conversation inside a home, according to a 2005 airport noise
map.

Many residents here say they already cannot enjoy their back yards on Sunday
afternoons because of the constant barrage of planes.

But the noise is only an inconvenience when you look at the rest of the
neighborhood.

Kaydene Cousins' two teenage boys walk across the street to the neighborhood
park almost every afternoon to play basketball. She doesn't have to worry
about drugs, crime or speeding cars.

The side entrance to the family's historic 1925 home, one of three in this
neighborhood on the city's list of historic places, is within eyesight of
the park.

But if Cousins is not watching the boys, chances are someone else is. Like
many traditional, older neighborhoods, the park fills an entire city block,
and all of the homes on the other side of the street face it.

"It's so intimate and safe," she said, pausing as a JetBlue Airways flight
passed.

Jose Rodriguez, the neighborhood association's president, said the community
has seen a renaissance over the past seven or eight years. Homes have been
cleaned up and restored. 

Palm Beach Atlantic University plans to transform the airport buyout zone
into an athletic facility and community park. The land was used as a dumping
ground for hurricane debris but for the most part has sat dormant as homes
were razed.

The Carefree Theatre plans to reopen as a combination concert hall and
cinema not far away in the former Christian Lighthouse church at 854
Conniston Road.

And neighborhood leaders are in the process of trying to get the entire
community - made up of mission revival and frame vernacular-style homes
built in the 1920s, '40s and '50s - added to the city's list of historic
places.

"Just because we got this announcement doesn't mean that we are going to
stop improving our neighborhood now," Rodriguez said. 

Under the runway proposal, the airport's southernmost runway, now used by
general aviation aircraft, would be widened and extended to accommodate
commercial jets.

The Federal Aviation Administration has begun a 21/2-year, $2.8 million
environmental study to consider the project. Officials say they won't know
how the neighborhood will be affected by the extension, or whether more
homes could be purchased, until a draft version of the study is completed
next year.

The announcement has put a cloud over Vedado and other communities in the
flight path because residents who want to sell their homes must now disclose
the project, said Linda Cullen, a Realtor and president of the Flamingo Park
Neighborhood Association, one of many areas teaming up to fight the
extension.

"This neighborhood just had so much good news recently," Cullen said. "Now
here we go again. It just seems like you take one step forward, two steps
back. ...

"Does that mean that their values are now totally in the toilet? No, I don't
mean that. It will make buyers think twice."

Aircraft delays predicted

Without the extension, airport officials have said, delays at PBIA could be
as long as 20 minutes by 2018. A consultant's analysis showed that by 4
p.m., aircraft waiting to depart would be backed up all the way to the
terminal area.

Those delays would be reduced to less than five minutes under the plan. The
analysis shows that the airport's main runway would be used solely for
departures. The extended runway would be used for arrivals. The airport's
third, crosswind runway would be used by single-engine and light
multi-engine aircraft. Throughout the day, there would be little to no
backlog.

The number of planes taking off and landing at PBIA is expected to increase
roughly 35 percent between 2005 and 2025.

Under the plan, the majority of the money for the project would come from
the FAA or the state. The rest would be raised through passenger facility
charges, a fee added to all airline tickets.

Airport officials have proposed increasing the fee from $3 to $4.50 to help
pay for the project and other airfield improvements. Palm Beach County
commissioners are expected to vote on the hike Tuesday.

Residents in Vedado stress that they are not anti-airport. In fact, many of
them like its convenience.

And longtime residents such as Owens say noise from the airport has improved
in recent years as federal regulators have phased out louder aircraft.

They just don't want to lose their community. 

"The whole area is a neat little area, if we haven't outlived our little
neighborhood," Owens said.

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