"Airport Land Use: Airport Area House Swaps Could Take Flight"

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

City wants partnership with Birmingham Airport Authority on housing buyouts
Relocations could form new community
BY ERIN STOCK
The Birmingham (AL) News

 
Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford wants to partner with the Birmingham Airport
Authority to complete buyouts around the airport by offering housing swaps. 

Langford on Tuesday suggested to the City Council that federal money for the
authority's noise reduction and relocation program could go toward
developing a new community with 100 to 150 new homes. 

The homes would be built on land offered by the city for the project.
Residents who have paid off their mortgages could exchange their houses for
new ones, Langford said, while those with mortgages would pay the remaining
cost in exchange for the new houses. 

It's a way to revitalize a community, use land the city has and keep
residents from leaving Birmingham, the mayor said. 

"Let's build a new community," he said. "We'll swap you house for house." 

The authority recently was awarded $22 million by the Federal Aviation
Administration for its noise reduction and relocation program. 

Gaynell Hendricks, chairwoman of the authority's board, said it's her
understanding the federal money must go toward paying residents for the
value of their homes and relocation costs, under the current federal
mandate. But she said she would discuss the housing swap idea with the FAA. 

"Housing swaps are something we can explore with FAA officials," she said,
"but there are many other possibilities to make this project work." 

Hendricks said the authority wants to collaborate on keeping residents
within the city of Birmingham. She called the partnerships a "win-win" for
all the parties involved. 

City Councilman Steven Hoyt said as the city tears down homes, replacement
homes for residents need to be built. 

"They have their leisure to move anywhere they want to, and some of them
elect to move out of the city," said Hoyt, who is also vice chairman of the
airport authority board. "But if the city had a development that was ready
within Birmingham city limits, people might decide to stay here." 

Representatives of the airport authority, the city and the Birmingham
Housing Authority will meet next week to discuss details, said Don Lupo, of
the Mayor's Office of Citizens Assistance. 

There are several parcels of land the city could offer for the development,
Lupo said. Habitat for Humanity, other nonprofit agencies as well as
contractors and home builders could be involved. 

Some North East Lake residents have complained of blight as the airport has
acquired property and demolished structures. Others were frustrated to be
left behind. The airport authority has a land use and redevelopment plan and
is getting input from residents on it, Hendricks said. 

City Council members applauded the housing swap idea on Tuesday, including
Carol Duncan. 

"We can't support everything sometimes, but this is a definite thing that we
need to do, and it should have been done for years, because there have been
30 years of misery over there," Duncan said.

 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


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