CAA: GA News, "Texas residents wary about Houston airport proposal"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Wednesday, April 4, 2001

Waller County residents wary about airport proposal
By TERRY KLIEWER
The Houston (TX) Chronicle


HEMPSTEAD -- Waller County residents' initial cool response to a proposed
new airport might be enough to send planners running back to the drawing
board -- if there were any plans to revise.

So far, however, the airport is at best months away from active planning,
which means a public meeting on the project this week had more to do with
public relations than with runways and hangars.

Early signs were that the PR battle won't be won easily.

The estimated 75 residents who packed a courtroom Tuesday night to hear
about the county's aviation ambitions told officials:

· They expect a referendum on the airport idea and probably on site
selection, too. No such vote had been planned, and County Judge Glenn Taylor
sidestepped pledging to give voters a say.

· They don't want potential airport developers to help fund site-selection
studies. To date, developers have been the county's preferred, and perhaps
only, source for $55,000 needed to get the studies started.

· They aren't especially concerned about Houston's plans to create a marsh
on land it owns in south Waller County -- a move that could nix that area
for airport development. Nevertheless, Commissioners Court will continue to
fight the proposal in federal court and the Legislature.

The evening meeting was to have focused on the process that Arlington-based
aviation consultant Charles Willis will follow when his firm, GRW Willis
Inc., starts preliminary site selection and environmental work.

Willis and state aviation planner Linda Howard of Austin assured the crowd
that the studies will include public meetings and official hearings at which
residents can ask questions and voice opinions.

They also said the consultant's work, which will take a year or two, won't
start until Waller County comes up with $55,000 toward the $550,000 federal
grant that will fund the studies.

Willis also dismissed speculation by some, including Houston aviation
officials, that the airport is intended to be a much grander project than
anyone has let on.

He said he couldn't imagine the facility being larger than about 200 acres
or serving anything more than single- or twin-engine private or corporate
aircraft.

Howard said a general-aviation "reliever" facility such as Willis described
is all that the Federal Aviation Administration is willing to consider for
the area.

Willis also denied rumors that land next to the site where Houston proposed
a decade ago to build a westside airport already has been picked as the
preferred county airport site.

He stressed that the FAA will require that the entire county be reviewed for
site selection. He added that the risk of birds colliding with planes -- a
factor that helped kill Houston's westside airport plan -- will be a major
consideration in the new study.

While some airport opponents in the audience seemed reassured by Willis'
remarks, others were less concerned with the planning process and more
worried about its political undertones.

Several wanted to know why a private developer, Westland Joint Venture, is
financing the county's fight against Houston's plan to use its former
westside airport site for environmental mitigation. The plan calls for the
land to be transformed into a marsh.

Others demanded to know whether Westland, or some other developer, is to pay
the county's $55,000 match for the FAA grant -- a step, one speaker said,
that would "look real shady."

Taylor refused to explain why Westland's attorneys are handling the county's
federal lawsuit against the FAA and Houston over the mitigation issue, at
one point disavowing any knowledge of who is being paid or how.

Nor would he say whether the county or private interests will pay the
$55,000 match. Westland proposed to pay it but since has withdrawn its
offer.

A Dallas firm, Mathews Southwest, also has made an offer in exchange for
rights to operate the airport.

Taylor also refused to commit to holding a referendum on airport
development, saying such an election would induce Houston officials to pour
"tons of money" into an anti-airport campaign.

Pressed further on the referendum idea, he said only that he "will support
the hopes and dreams of Waller County citizens any way I can."

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