"Fort Lauderdale airport expansion draws supporters"

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Airport expansion draws supporters
By Jamie Malernee and Thomas Monnay 
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel 

 
In the fight over plans to expand Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International
Airport, the protests of nearby homeowners concerned about noise and being
forced out of their homes usually ring the loudest. 

But Tuesday, hundreds of people wearing yellow T-shirts gathered at the
Broward County Convention Center to call for growth.
 
"We need to show the commissioners that there are people in all of Broward
County that are concerned we aren't keeping up with infrastructure," said
Terry Stiles, chairman of Stiles Corp., a Fort Lauderdale-based developer.
"If we do nothing, it's a worse environmental situation because of the
pollution created by planes circling and stacking up 10 deep."

Several of the people who went to the public hearing, organized by the
Federal Aviation Administration, said they were employees of Stiles Corp.
Stiles said their T-shirts sporting pro-expansion messages were provided by
the Broward Workshop, a group of influential business leaders, which also
bused supporters to the event.

Opponents like Yvonne Siegrist, 65, a resident of the Everglades Mobile Home
Park in Davie, were in the minority. Siegrist complained that the roar of
FedEx jets from the airport begins daily at 5:30 a.m. over her home and
would only grow worse.

"Sure, it would position us for the future, but do we need another Miami?"
she asked. 

Before the hearing, attended by about 400 people, the public milled about a
room filled with various expansion scenarios and charts. One option keeps
the airport at its current size. 

So far, the County Commission's preferred alternative has been to lengthen
the south runway from 5,600 to 8,000 feet and widen it from 100 to 150 feet.
The cost: almost $700 million, with more than 1,000 homes affected by noise.

Many in the business community also support that plan. 

Commissioners are expected to vote June 5 on which proposal they want.
Assuming they approve expansion, they will still have to pick a contractor
and help neighboring homeowners soundproof their homes or relocate. At the
earliest, the project would be completed in 2012. 

Commissioner John Rodstrom predicts some sort of expansion will pass, but
said he will oppose it. Rodstrom's district includes parts of Dania Beach
and Davie near the airport. 

"I believe the data that was generated by the consultant is absolutely
flawed," he said. "I don't see why you need to do it."

Billy Witcher, a commercial pilot from Davie, said the status quo is
unacceptable and a small number of homeowners shouldn't control the issue.
He said the airport has only one runway that accommodates his plane's large
wingspan.

"To us, that airport is a one-runway airport. Everything stacks up," he
complained.

Also in attendance was Howard Greenberg, senior vice president and general
manager of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Greenberg spoke at the hearing,
saying the newspaper supports the expansion. 

Randy and Pat Wright, who live just south of the airport in Dania Beach,
were not clad in yellow. "We're not against expansion -- there's just got to
be a way to do it where it doesn't impact so much," Pat Wright said.

Her husband was less conciliatory. "If they are going to expand it this way,
I personally want to be bought out. The noise is going to be terrible," he
said. "They fly so close, I can see the pilot, the color of his eyeballs!"

After listening to the complaints of local homeowners, Barbara Vosk, a
senior citizen from Tamarac who had come out to support the expansion,
changed her mind: "I was a supporter until I heard all the human misery."

The FAA will issue a final report by spring 2008 looking at the
environmental impact of the airport's expansion. 

To read more about the proposals, go to http://www.broward.org/airport.

 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************