Avion Park residents fretting over airport expansion

Naples Airport Authority officials have been trying to calm the nerves of the community on the airport’s western fringe that is on edge about the airport’s possible future plans.

Avion Park residents have submitted a petition to the city, urging it not to allow airplanes and hangars to be parked in an area near homes. The petition, signed by 18 residents, says conceptual plans being mapped out by the Naples Airport Authority that call for housing jets on the west quadrant of the airport will devalue properties, cause additional noise, traffic, pollution from fumes and risk their lives in the event of a crash.

“You should never move the airport half of it over to our half. That should not be done,” resident Everett Thayer recently told the Naples City Council.

The Airport Authority has been trying to assure residents not to worry. They said there are no immediate plans to change the development of the airport’s western quadrant, other than moving a perimeter fence farther away from Avion Park.

They said that will create a nice buffer of about two football fields at its widest point.

The airport also plans to build an access road directly across from the handicapped parking lot on North Road.

As residents recently questioned airport officials about what this was all about, they learned of some longer-range plans. And that rang the alarm bell. Airport officials have been considering a “build out” plan that involves moving the general aviation terminal and the parking spaces for transient jets to the western quadrant of the property.

But this is not planned in the next few years, said Erv Dehn, the director of planning and engineering for the airport.

He said construction wouldn’t likely begin until 2012 to 2015.

He said the airport doesn’t have money for the project.

“First of all, we’d have to find about $50 million worth of money to pay for the ramp to park the airplanes,” Dehn said.

Today, Dehn said, there aren’t enough parking spaces for transient aircraft by the general aviation terminal, which is located on the eastern side of the airport.

“Quite frankly, we’re running out of space on ground to park based aircraft,” he said, adding that there are about 435 based aircraft parked on airport property all year long.

He said another 225 to 250 transient aircraft park at the airport during the season.

“We have been up to our hourly capacity, and even daily capacity, many times this past season. We’ve had to close down a taxiway and park airplanes on it,” he said.

To handle demand, the airport has been parking some jets by the commercial terminal on the south end of the airport.

But due to Federal Aviation Administration regulations, jets parked there cannot taxi in or out of that area. Instead, they have to be towed back to the General Aviation Terminal before taking off.

“Towing airplanes across the airfield is labor-intensive,” he said.

There is room on the western side of the airport to park more jets and consolidate the transient aircraft operations. He said the general aviation terminal and aircraft ramp could be moved to the western quadrant. The based aircraft would remain on the east and south side of the airport.

Dehn said the next step for this is to incorporate some version of a build-out plan into the airport’s master plan that is submitted to the FAA. And the city’s planning board would also have to agree to the changes.

Dehn said there are no changes slated for the flight path of jets in and out of the airport. Therefore, he said, the residents’ concerns that the odds of a jet crashing into their neighborhood increasing with the development of the western quadrant isn’t correct.

“There is no reality there at all,” he said. The petition also expressed concerns about airplane hangars being built on the west side of the airport, something Dehn said isn’t even being considered.

Authority commissioner Peter Manion said the immediate changes on the western side of the airport should be pleasing to Avion Park residents. He noted that a service road to the airport that is now located by the community is being moved farther south, away from it.

Manion said the plans for the western quadrant of the airport are far from final.

“We’d have to put them on a long-range plan. We may ultimately develop it, but there is nothing specific,” he said. “It’s like planning for roads way in the future. You have to sort of plan for them, but the development of those is a function of what happens in general.”

Not all Avion Park residents are upset with the airport, and the airport was praised in a recent homeowners’ association newsletter.

Kathi Bruce, who lives on Avion Place, recently praised the buffer that the airport is creating by moving the west perimeter fence eastward. The airport also plans to plant trees and allow a biking trail on the site.

“Yes, I understand the west quadrant will have transient air traffic, which means it’s parking,” she recently told the Naples City Council, which only listened to the debate but took no action.

The council leaves the airport planning and operations to the Airport Authority, but does appoint its commissioners.

“I understand, yes, there will be some noise,” Bruce continued with the council. “I’m not opposed to this. We built (homes) knowing there was an airport there. There is going to be a park in between us (and the jets), and that will be a buffer.”