CAA: GA News, "Centennial Airport compromise pending"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thursday, March 14, 2002

Airport compromise pending
Centennial officials expected to give OK to commercial flight, but with
severe limits
By Marlys Duran
The Denver (CO) Rocky Mountain News


Centennial Airport officials are expected today to back a
precedent-setting compromise aimed at restoring federal funding to the
beleaguered airfield. 

The plan calls for the airport board to ease a ban on scheduled
passenger service while pursuing alternative funding and federal
legislation that would make such flights unlikely. The funding proposals
include asking Arapahoe County voters in November to approve a property
tax hike. 

The plan is outlined in a resolution signed by all 15 members of a
board-appointed finance committee, including representatives of area
residents and airport businesses that historically have been at odds
over operations at Centennial. 

"This clearly is a shocking course of events," board Chairman John
Brackney said. "We've been battling for over a decade and for the first
time ever, all the signatories have agreed." 

Among the signers is David Phifer, mayor of Greenwood Village, which for
years has waged a vocal and expensive campaign to keep scheduled
passenger service out of Centennial. He declined to comment. 

The proposed compromise was called "awesome" by committee member Robin
Backstrom, president of the Cherry Creek Neighborhood Association, which
represents about 10,000 residents living beneath or near a flight
pattern north of the airport. 

The airport board is on a fast track to either replace or restore about
$1.8 million in annual federal funding for maintenance projects. The
grants were cut in 1998 after the board refused to lift its ban on
scheduled service. 

The board today likely will schedule a public hearing, possibly in
April, on recommendations from the finance committee and two other task
forces appointed to research options for solving the airport's dilemma. 

Brackney, who also is an Arapahoe County commissioner, and board member
Clark Upton, a councilman in Greenwood Village, predicted the
five-member panel will adopt the plan after the hearing. 

"I find it very compelling," Upton said. 

Key provisions include: 

   Adopting minimum standards that would allow scheduled flights of up
nine passengers after the Federal Aviation Administration adopts rules
permitting such limited service. 

   "Nobody's concerned about nine seats," said Bill Payne, president of
the Centennial Airport Business Association. They would use the same
kind of planes now operating at Centennial, he said, and "would be lost
in the crowd." 

   Also, such operations likely would be unprofitable, he said. 

   Placing a property tax increase on the November election ballot. The
tax would go away once federal funding was restored. 

   Pursuing federal legislation, including a law allowing general
aviation airports to exclude all scheduled flights if they are within 25
nautical miles of an airport providing such service. 

   Getting commitments for local short-term funding until the tax hike
or federal grants were in place. 

Backstrom said the goal is to permanently remove the threat of scheduled
service at Centennial through new legislation. The plan, he said, "will
give us enough time to do that." 


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

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