 |
 |
By BRETT WILKISON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
After years of planning and study, a proposed $84 million expansion of Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport is set for a vote Tuesday by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors.
The project calls for longer runways, more commercial flights and a new passenger terminal, along with other upgrades. It was approved by the county Planning Commission last month in a 4-1 vote.
The project would extend the airport’s main runway by 885 feet to 6,000 feet, which would meet current safety requirements and accommodate larger aircraft.
It also would enable up to 21 commercial flights a day by 2030, a limit already authorized by the county’s general plan but not possible with current infrastructure, airport officials say.
Most of the improvements would be financed with federal aviation grants.
Though few have questioned the runway safety upgrades, which are pegged at about $42 million, or half the total expansion cost, critics have taken aim at the project’s environmental impacts, including the effect on noise, air and water quality from adding more flights and larger aircraft.
“I think something like this is going to change the area,” said John Maier, a Santa Rosa resident concerned about the project.
Supporters have downplayed the impacts and said the airport expansion is needed to boost Sonoma County’s economy.
Although the airport’s traffic reached an all-time high in 2011 of 207,188 passengers, about 70 percent of the county’s 1.6 million annual passengers travel to San Francisco to fly, said Sonoma County Airport Manager Jon Stout. “We can make it a lot more convenient,” he said.
Currently, Alaska Airlines operates five flights a day from Santa Rosa to Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland and Las Vegas.
The county is in talks with Alaska and Frontier Airlines about additional flights.
Each one would add about $23 million in direct and indirect economic activity and about 40 jobs, said Stout, who said the calculations were from basic economic models.
Timing of the other half of the expansion, including a new passenger terminal, air cargo facility and control tower, depends on attracting more airlines, officials have noted.
“It’s not going to be the San Jose of the north,” Stout said. “We don’t have the population base for that.”
A preliminary vote by county supervisors on the project’s environmental study, changes to the general plan and the airport’s master plan could be followed by a final vote Jan. 24.
If approved and given a go-ahead by federal officials, work on the runway extension could begin in July, with an estimated completion in fall of 2013.
Subscribe by Email
Follow us on Twitter
This is a great opportunity. Hopefully this will bring more businesses in to Sonoma County to help the economy grow. We need transportation like this in this county to grow. Do the people not realize for our county to grow, we need the infastructure to support that growth? I’m sorry, but wine and grapes aren’t going to cut it, we need big time businesses in here.
Here’s the simple math, have the support structure, businesses will come, businesses come, people have jobs, people have jobs, people spend money, people spend money, local businesses make money and people buy houses.
But I know someone will have a comment about what I said. If you bought the house near the airport…you should had known, just like if you live next to a train track, you should had known. I have personally lived near both and in the flight plan of one, you get use to it.
Hey Mr. Grapevines,
Windsor the community you’re talking about long before all the Hot Tube Marin burn-outs showed up with their money Windsor was a small farm community. I’m not against the expansion I am actually for it but against where the Air traffic is concentrated at (Windsor). You say it’s “stupid” for people who bought there recently but what do you say to the people who have been there for generations? Growing up here the airport was barely noticeable and only was when the bohemian was in town. Now it’s one private jet after another and its not even the commercial planes that bother me that much. What bother me are these stinky, loud, private Jet planes which fly in at any direction at anytime of the night (Like these wanna be grape growers are so important to fly in at 2 am) I’m for progress but with guidelines and compromise to all Citizens. I never thought the day would come when Sonoma County would disregard a community in it’s wanting to preserve a quality of life. I remember Sonoma County was Ag, Granola, Hippy, and middle class. (Those days I guess are gone) It just matter of time when we will look like San Jose.(Yuck)
Ring Ring Ring wants to know about property values. I want to know does anyone not know the airport was there when they purchased? It’s a commercial airport, it’s not going to go away. It’s going to grow along with the community. That means more flights and bigger planes. So either move now before it affects you, or don’t buy there in the first place. But to know it was there, and then complain about it afterwards, is sort of stupid.
What will all the added noise do to property values ?