CAA: GA News, "Henderson Executive Airport expansion project clears hurdle"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thursday, November 8, 2001

Airport expansion project clears hurdle
By Jeffrey Libby
THE LAS VEGAS (NV) SUN


As visitors to the Henderson Executive Airport drive the last approach
of a narrow road flanked by utility poles -- potential flying hazards
you don't see at most airports -- they pass a sign that reads: "Warning.
Yield to Aircraft."

The general aviation airport of mostly small planes is a hodgepodge of
trailered offices and ramshackle tin hangars plunked down around a 1940s
air traffic control tower salvaged from Nellis Air Force Base in 1974.

Planes and cars sometimes pilot the same roadways, and inside the main
terminal for Grand Canyon flight tours, gift store employees sit at
metal card tables gluing beads onto Southwestern-style handkerchiefs.

If the 420-acre airport seems on the whole resourcefully modest, the $13
million expansion plan the Clark County Department of Aviation has for
it is outright ambitious.

The county says it is going to remake the airport as a first-class
general aviation reliever airport that will serve as a landmark
"gateway" to southwest Henderson, which borders Interstate 15.

On Tuesday, the Henderson City Council approved the county's plans,
removing one of the last hurdles to a project that has been delayed for
more than two years by difficulties obtaining a 140-acre lease from the
Bureau of Land Management and a lingering legal challenge by residential
neighbors of nearby Seven Hills.

Mayor Jim Gibson said the airport expansion will be integral to defining
the shape of industrial development within the 6,200 acres annexed by
the city in July 2000. The 6,200 acres are southwest of St. Rose Parkway
between the airport and Interstate 15.

"The bottom line is that the city isn't going to make decisions as to
the gateway itself," Gibson said. "But we will take into account what
private development is proposed and we'll make sure it's better than if
we didn't have the foresight to plan for it in advance."

As a new transportation hub for corporate jets, the airport should
attract more industry to the area, Tom Donaldson, manager of the
airport, said.

The initial airport expansion will require tearing up the existing
5,040-foot runway and building two new runways canted slightly away from
residential neighborhoods to reduce noise. One runway will be built to
the same 5,040-foot length. A second runway will be built to 6,500 feet,
opening the airport to corporate jets. It will not, however, open the
airport to carrier jets such as 737s.

After building new runways, the county plans to raze everything on the
site site except for one hangar built in the last couple years.

In its place, the county will build a new expanded main terminal,
traffic control tower, shade hangars, repair shops and a restaurant. The
county has also secured permits for a hotel, day care facility and a
park among other amenities, but Donaldson said those developments, if
pursued, would be several years off.

The county bought the private airport, then known as Sky Harbor Airport,
in 1996. County aviation officials also run a similar general aviation
airport in North Las Vegas, which the county has already upgraded.

The county plans to use both facilities as reliever airports to divert
slower, smaller planes from McCarran International Airport. That will
allow McCarran to land more planes, serving a projected maximum annual
passenger capacity of 55 million by 2007.

The Henderson airport is expected to double its 77,000 take-offs and
landings in the next decade, coordinating more than 150,000 operations
by 2011.

   Post your opinion on this story in the CAA General Aviation Forum
http://www.californiaaviation.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?conf=DCConfID2

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