"Livermore airport plan draws crowd"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Saturday, January 29, 2005

Airport plan draws crowd
By Bonita Brewer
The Contra Costa (CA) Times


Controversy over plans to upgrade the Livermore Municipal Airport is likely
to pull a huge Tri-Valley crowd to a Livermore City Council meeting Monday
evening.

"Thousands will probably show up," said Livermore resident Karen McMullen.
"We've already distributed 7,000 fliers. People from all over the valley are
very interested in this and will come to the meeting."

The 7 p.m. meeting had been planned for the Granada High School student
union but city officials agreed to move it to the school's gym, which holds
up to 1,700 people. Airport plan foes from Livermore, Pleasanton and Dublin
warned the smaller building wouldn't be nearly big enough.

There will also be plan supporters there. Pilots in favor of the upgrade are
also expected to make a showing.

They insist the proposed upgrades are meant to accommodate airport growth,
not create it, and to improve airplane safety on the ground and in the air.

Ralph Cloud, chairman of the city's Airport Advisory Commission, and a
member of the 21-member regional panel that reviewed expansion plans, said
the upgrades would be no different than adding freeway lanes to handle
increased traffic on Interstate 580.

Though foes insist they're not trying to close the airport down, "if they
get what they want (some residents support increased restrictions), they
will choke it to death and it will close eventually," Cloud said, warning of
negative effects on the region's economy.

With other Bay Area airports outgrowing their capacity, the 643-acre
Livermore airport, the area's fourth-busiest behind San Francisco, Oakland
and San Jose, is being eyed as a growing base for corporate and
"fly-for-hire" charter jets.

The plan's most controversial aspects would lengthen the shorter of two
runways from 2,700 to 4,000 feet, add more hangars and lease space to
aviation support businesses catering to corporate jet users.

The 21-member advisory panel -- comprised of residents, pilots, elected
officials and business representatives from the valley's three cities --
completed its work in December sharply divided on the proposed master plan.

The strongest consensus was for a full environmental impact study to be
done, for storage hangars to be developed only to satisfy demand within the
Tri-Valley area, and for projections of future airport activity to be
revised downward.

Master plan supporters say forecasts that annual takeoffs and landings will
nearly double from last year to 370,000 by 2020 are unrealistically high and
scaring the community. Opponents fear the projections will become a
self-fulfilling prophecy.

The city councils of Pleasanton and Dublin also have requested that
Livermore conduct the environmental report, which Livermore officials say
would take from nine to 18 months and cost $100,000.

But several airport neighbors who served on the advisory panel, including
McMullen, now say they won't be satisfied until the project as now proposed
is rejected and sent back to the drawing board -- before any environmental
review is launched.

"Otherwise, it could be a complete waste of taxpayer money," warned panel
member Tom Hagen of Pleasanton. He contends the entire process has been
biased in favor of the plan and that an environmental impact report would be
no different.

Livermore resident Purnham Sheth agreed.

"They need to take the plan back with direction for specific policies that
would constrain growth, come up with a noise-reduction program and
discourage jet traffic," Sheth said.

City officials said if an EIR is done on noise, safety and other issues, one
of the alternatives that would legally need to be analyzed is doing no
project at all.

Because the extended runway would still be shorter and structurally weaker
than the main 5,255-foot runway, the plan wouldn't allow larger, heavier
aircraft, Cloud said. He said the lengthening is needed mainly to reduce
both noise and hazards by cutting down on aircraft congestion on the ground
and in the air during landings and takeoffs.

He noted that scheduled commercial passenger service would continue to be
prohibited.

But airport neighbors argue that more airport capacity will simply attract
more planes and jets, ultimately doing nothing to improve noise and safety
hazards.

Granada High School is located at 400 Wall Street in Livermore.


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