
{"id":3388,"date":"2008-09-04T08:39:54","date_gmt":"2008-09-04T16:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=3388"},"modified":"2008-09-06T09:42:18","modified_gmt":"2008-09-06T17:42:18","slug":"airport-plans-starting-to-take-shape-opposition-gearing-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/09\/04\/airport-plans-starting-to-take-shape-opposition-gearing-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Airport plans starting to take shape, opposition gearing up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Kirk Ross<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The effort to locate and build an airport in Orange County moved forward last week with the appointment of a project director, even as opposition to the move is starting to get organized.<\/p>\n<p>Kevin FitzGerald, executive associate dean for finance and administration in the UNC School of Medicine, was appointed by Chancellor Holden Thorp and School of Medicine Dean Bill Roper to lay the groundwork for a 15-member airport authority that will be charged with locating, constructing and managing a new airport.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nIn an interview Tuesday with The Citizen, FitzGerald said he expects appointments to the new board to be a critical early step. The authority was set up in the waning days of the recent session of the General Assembly. The legislation specifies that the airport be built in Orange County specifically to replace Horace Williams Aiport. UNC officials want to use the airport land for its Carolina North project.<\/p>\n<p>Four members of the authority are to be appointed by the UNC-Chapel Hill board of trustees and four from the UNC Health Care system. In addition, three members are to be appointed by the Orange County Board of Commissioners, two members from municipalities within the county, one member by the Speaker of the North Carolina House and one member by the Senate president pro tempore.<\/p>\n<p>FitzGerald said he expects the appointments\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 process to be worked out over the next couple of months, culminating in a vote on recommendations by the UNC Board of Governors.<\/p>\n<p>Designs, plans and a site for the airport have not been established, he said, except that the airport would be a general aviation airport as defined by the state Deportment of Transportation.<\/p>\n<p>With concerns already being raised about where the airport would go, FitzGerald said no site has been selected, although he and others are aware of research in the past by the county and the university on possible location.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a site right now that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve identified,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. Since the authority is likely to seek federal funds for the airport, FitzGerald said the site-selection process will need to follow federal guidelines.<\/p>\n<p>For now, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s concentrating on how the authority will be set up and do business. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We want to make sure the mechanics are separate from the siting.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The \u00e2\u20ac\u0153where\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of the airport, which would have a minimum runway close to mile in length, is a concern among many members of the newly formed Orange County Voice, a group organizing in opposition to the authority. But for now, the group, originally called Concerned Citizens Against the Abuse of Eminent Domain, is concentrating on how the authority might do its work and whether a new airport is a wise use of tax dollars.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not pleased that the Legislature and UNC think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s okay to bypass land-use and zoning rules in Orange County,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Bonnie Hauser, a spokesperson for the group, which she says includes roughly a hundred members. By law, the authority would have the right to condemn land for the airport.<\/p>\n<p>Hauser said she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand why the state would want to spend an estimated $35 million to $60 million when the cost of setting up a new hangar at Raleigh Durham International Airport for university and medical school air operations would only cost around $2 million.<\/p>\n<p>A new home for the health care system\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Medical Air operations was planned for RDU, but the idea met with strong opposition in the Legislature after pilots and doctors testified last year that statewide health care programs would suffer if they were based at RDU.<\/p>\n<p>Fitzgerald said previously he expects it to take between five and 10 years to site and construct and airport.<\/p>\n<p>He also acknowledged this week that Duke and UNC officials have discussed the airport.<br \/>\nIn an email response to The Citizen Wednesday, Tallman Trask, Duke\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s executive vice president, wrote that the two universities had discussed the airport, but it is not known yet whether Duke would be interested in using the airport.<\/p>\n<p>Both men said the siting of the airport had not been discussed.<\/p>\n<p>Duke, which owns Duke Forest, is the largest landowner in Orange County.<\/p>\n<p>Asked whether any Duke Forest land is under consideration, Trask wrote that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153as far as I know, no Duke land is under discussion.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kirk Ross Staff Writer The effort to locate and build an airport in Orange County moved forward last week with the appointment of a project director, even as opposition to the move is starting to get organized. Kevin FitzGerald, executive associate dean for finance and administration in the UNC School of Medicine, was appointed&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}