CAA: GA News, "Neighbors resigned to Wisconsin airport expansion"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@cwnet.com>]

Thursday, June 1, 2000

Neighbors resigned to Waupaca airport expansion
By Susan Squires
Appleton (WI) Post-Crescent


WAUPACA - Property owners around Brunner Field seemed dejected but resigned
Wednesday to the prospect of dramatic upheaval in their neighborhood.

The city is trying to decide whether to add 1,100 feet to the airport's
existing runway, build a 5,000-foot, east-west runway or do nothing at all.

Runway expansion is necessary to keep and attract industry, Public Works
Director John Edlebeck told a crowd of about 25 at an informational meeting
Wednesday.

An increasing number of businesses and their customers use corporate jets.
Without a runway long enough to suit their purposes, Edlebeck said, the city
could have trouble expanding its industrial park.

"It's about economic development," he said. The state is willing to fund 80
percent of either project Edlebeck said, although there are no cost
estimates yet.

Extending the current runway would suffice temporarily, but further
extension is impossible because of the runway's proximity to the Waupaca
River.

In his opinion, a longer, east-west runway makes more financial and
logistical sense, Airport Board Chairman Larry Obiala said.

The airport is just one of the proposed infrastructure improvements
encroaching on property in the area.

Frontage roads are proposed along U.S. 10 on the airport's south side in
conjunction with a proposed State 22/54 bypass. An east-west runway would
trim or divide some of the same properties from the north.

Either way, those who live on Heather Lane will have to find a new route
home. The runway would bisect it and its direct access to 10 would end with
the frontage roads.

Timing further complicates the puzzle. The airport project would probably
begin in 2003, but road construction isn't expected until 2007 or 2008.

One of the neighbors suggested the city build them a tunnel.

The city's plans are in their most tentative state. It hasn't yet authorized
a pre-engineering study of either airport option.

"What you see here, lines on the paper, that's where it's at," Edlebeck told
the airport neighbors.

The potential changes will likely alter the still quasi-rural area's
character.

"This is going to attract some attention," Edlebeck said. "You may be
approached. Some have already been. There has been interest in the purchase
of their land for something other than agriculture."

Jim Abert, N2799 Heather Lane, asked what land use planning the city expects
to undertake in conjunction with the anticipated infrastructure
improvements.

If the city decides to either expand its existing runway or build a new one,
Edlebeck said, residents will be invited to participate in land use planning
for the area.

Nina Kennedy, also of Heather Lane, wondered how much say the residents
would have in their neighborhood's fate.

"Who's going to have more voice in this, the Realtors and developers or the
land owners and people who've lived here for years and don't have big bucks?
Is our voice going to be heard when the money is on the other side?" she
asked.

Kennedy is also worried about land use planning in the face of so much
change.

"I don't want Joe's Bar and Grill in my back yard," she said. "That's why I
live where I live."

Ultimately, the Airport Board and Common Council will decide what happens at
the airport, Edlebeck said.

While none of the residents spoke up in favor of the airport proposals,
particularly a new east-west runway, several thanked the city for the
opportunity to speak before plans were formulated.

"As much as we would like to have it stay the way it is, it is obvious it
can't be that way," Heather Lane property owner Barry Shaw said.


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