"Sacramento airport plans $1 billion expansion, new terminal"

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Airport plans leap across I-5
Expansion would add parking lot, shuttle service over freeway.
By Tony Bizjak
The Sacramento (CA) Bee


Sacramento International Airport, increasingly crowded and in need of new
facilities, is planning a historic leap over Interstate 5 to build a massive
new parking lot.

Officials say the 13,800-space lot and a new car rental complex will
kick-start a $1 billion airport expansion to keep up with Sacramento growth
and compete with Bay Area airports for Northern California fliers.

"We looked at our options and decided we needed to go south of I-5," said
Rob Leonard, assistant director of Sacramento County airports. "It makes
sense." 

Leonard said the airport will lose a significant amount of parking in its
core area as early as next year when new terminal construction begins.

Leapfrogging the freeway, he said, will compensate for those losses and help
position the airport for an expected 40 percent growth to 14 million
passengers annually by 2020.

The county, which operates the airport, owns the 209-acre site and most of
the adjoining land south of the airport between I-5 and the Sacramento
River.

Shuttle buses would ferry people over the freeway to terminals, and
officials say they expect the ride to take only marginally longer than
shuttles serving current closer-in lots.

Over the long run, airport officials envision a second airport hotel on the
south side of the freeway, as well as offices and other commercial ventures.

Building the parking lots may not be automatic or easy.

Because the airport is in the environmentally sensitive Natomas basin, the
county must put together a plan -- requiring federal and state regulatory
approval -- to address potential environmental effects of the project.

Home to nearly two dozen endangered species, the area is a longtime
battleground among environmentalists, regulators and developers.

State regulators this week warned that the environmental review process
could take more time than airport officials plan.

For their part, airport officials say they hope to get started on the
parking lot this year so they can move full speed next year on the
centerpiece of their new master plan -- a three-story, glass-walled central
terminal, which they hope to open in 2011.

The terminal will replace the outdated 40-year-old Terminal B complex, which
will be razed.

Leonard said airport planners expect to have to eliminate part of the hourly
and daily lots for Terminal B, as many as 3,000 parking spaces, for
construction.

Airport users still will be able to use the multistory parking garage next
to Terminal A, and other existing surface parking lots on-site, he said.

Also planned as part of the multiyear expansion are a second parking garage,
a high-rise hotel attached to the new terminal, a tram to take passengers to
a new concourse, and eventually a third runway.

Terminal A will continue to function as a separate terminal. Long term,
however, all airport ticketing and baggage service will be handled in the
new central terminal. Terminal A would become a satellite boarding area
linked to the main terminal by a tram.

Airport officials have penciled in a site for a light-rail train station at
the new terminal to help ease the airport parking crunch.

However, Sacramento Regional Transit officials say it doesn't appear they
will be able to extend light rail to the airport until sometime after 2020.

The plan to leapfrog the freeway has prompted a number of environmental
concerns.

State environmental officials say they will permit the expansion after the
airport provides an acceptable habitat conservation plan for any affected
endangered species in the Natomas basin.

"We are having discussions with them on how to address concerns in the
basin," said state Fish and Game environmental scientist Jenny Marr. "We
hope to work with them to satisfy the airport's needs and to protect
species."

In a recently released draft environmental impact report, airport officials
propose setting aside an equal amount of land nearby to be conserved
permanently as open space and wildlife habitat.

Some environmentalists and biologists familiar with the Natomas basin,
however, say they are not sure the county can truly compensate for the land
use south of the freeway.

Biologist Jim Estep, who monitors Swainson's hawks, said even though
open-space land must be set aside for every new development, he isn't sure
wildlife will survive long term in the basin if development continues.

Area residents expressed concerns about additional traffic.

Kevin McRae of the Garden Highway homeowners group said the Garden Highway,
a thin road perched atop a levee south of I-5, is not suitable for heavier
traffic the expansion might cause. "It is already dangerous," he said.

Airport officials, however, say the main access to the planned new site
would be from Airport Boulevard at I-5.

The airport's 20-year master plan for expansion is expected to be financed
by fees paid by airport users, including passengers and airlines, officials
said.

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