The Arizona Republic - February 2007
Chandler has put the brakes on growth at its airport, and that includes a ban on commercial passenger service.
In a decision Thursday, the City Council changed municipal law to prohibit Chandler from seeking Federal Aviation Administration approval for commercial passenger operations.
The decision also reduces the maximum potential runway length from 6,800 feet to 5,700 feet. The current length is 4,850 feet. And it requires that runway pavement be designed for craft weighing less than 75,000 pounds.
"This should give citizens living around the airport some comfort to know that it will not expand to allow larger aircraft," said Becky Jackson, president of the Citizens Bond Committee and the Chandler Chamber of Commerce.
Her committee urged the limitations, and Jackson said she is hopeful they will reduce opposition to a May 15 bond vote that seeks to lengthen the runway to 5,700 feet.
The move was the latest action designed to protect what has become one of the city's biggest economic development areas in the face of long-standing rural neighborhood opposition.
"Every time you say airplanes and longer runway, people go off the deep end," said John Walkup, owner of Chandler Air Service and a leader in the pro-bond group. "We have tried to tell everybody for years that there won't be big jets, large aircraft here . . . this (the new law) is a way we can get public support for the longer runway without having people feel threatened."
Built in 1948 for crop dusters, the 542-acre airport at Cooper and Germann roads is now a hub for private and corporate planes. The nine square miles around it is bustling with new commercial construction and is likely to become one of the city's largest employment centers.
In the late 1980s, residents voted to ban jets there, but the city attorney declared the vote unconstitutional. As a compromise, the city agreed to keep the runway to 4,800 feet - too short for most jet aircraft. In 2000, a bond election that would have extended the runway to 6,800 feet failed.
The latest master plan recommended a 5,700-foot runway, and airport manager Greg Chenoweth has said the longer runway would be safer but would not accommodate larger aircraft.
At recent public meetings consultants said the airport's use will increase in coming years even without expansion.
Residents living on rural acreage near the airport have been fighting runway extension efforts for years and have vowed to oppose the latest one. Beverly Parris and Guy Pepoy are leaders of that group and have said they fear the longer runway will increase noise and traffic. Neither was available for comment Friday.
