CAA: GA News, "Texas cities jockey for new airport"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tuesday, March 11, 2002

Areas jockey for new airport
San Marcos bids to be interim site for general aviation airport
By Mary Alice Kaspar
The Austin (TX) Business Journal


An attempt to decide which community will be home to a new $52 million
airport has taken off, with one contender -- San Marcos -- hoping it is
designated the interim site.

More than 20 governments in Central Texas responded favorably to a Sept. 12
Texas Department of Transportation memo inquiring about areas' "level of
interest in being considered as a potential site for the Central Texas
Airport." In late February, TxDOT finished compiling a list of interested
governments.

The City of San Marcos responded by saying it's interested not only in the
airport but would like the San Marcos Municipal Airport to be chosen as an
interim site until a permanent general aviation airport is designated.

TxDOT sent the memo in response to a state law signed last year.

The measure, House Bill 2522, gives TxDOT the power to establish and
maintain a general aviation airport in Central Texas and determine the
airport's location. In a fiscal note attached to the bill, TxDOT estimates
the cost of the airport at $52 million. Of that, $31.1 million would be
federal money funneled through TxDOT.

David Fulton, director of TxDOT's aviation division, says the next step is
to collect federal funds for a site study. Although he says such a study
ultimately will decide how many acres the new airport will occupy, he
expects it to be 400 to 500 acres.
A member site selection committee has been appointed by TxDOT, the State
Aircraft Pooling Board and Bill Clayton, co-chairman of the committee.
Clayton, now with a political consulting firm called Capital Consultants, is
a former speaker of the Texas House and is current chairman of the pooling
board.

Among the committee members are Fulton; Austin real estate developer Gary
Bradley; San Marcos car dealer Chuck Nash; and Georgetown aviation
executives Johnny Gantt and Paul Smith. The committee held its first meeting
earlier this year.

The State Aircraft Pooling Board provides air transportation to state
officials and employees traveling on state business. Flights arranged by the
pooling board now go through Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Those
flights would move to the new airport, which also would be available to the
general public.

Representatives from locations vying for the airport say the kind of
activity associated with the new airport will spur economic development,
with state legislators and businesspeople traveling to and from the airport.

"The thought of the state airport has a great deal of appeal on numerous
fronts," says Kirk Clennan, executive director of the Cedar Park Development
Corps., the city's economic development arm.

Entities as far east as the City of Lexington and as far west as the City of
Johnson City have indicated an interest in the airport. The northernmost
city responding to the TxDOT offer was Granger; San Marcos was the
southernmost city.

Governments such as Austin, Travis County, Round Rock and Georgetown didn't
respond to TxDOT's request, however.

Bradley, a member of the site selection committee, says the panel faces a
dilemma in its deliberations.

"The conflict here is that people at the Legislature would love to see the
airport as close in [to] the metropolitan area as possible. But obviously
it's much easier to build a ways from Austin," Bradley says. "Therein lies
the challenge for the committee -- find a site close enough to Austin for
the people that want to use it."

Bradley says one site being considered is part of land commonly referred to
as the Heep Ranch, northeast of Buda. The site -- just east of land known as
the Texas A&M Heep Ranch -- is owned by a company affiliated with Bradley.

Bradley says he favors designating San Marcos' airport as an interim site
but has reservations about it being the final choice because of its distance
from Austin. San Marcos is about 30 miles south of Austin.

San Marcos Mayor David Chiu says he thinks the state could save millions of
dollars by converting the city's municipal airport as opposed to building
one from scratch.

Regardless of the location, Bradley says the airport helps drive general
aviation in the region. As commercial airlines have become more inconvenient
since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bradley says, general aviation flights
have grown in popularity.

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