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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06 09 1989 Airport issue has storied historyS� ebastian Sun Week of June 9,1989 Pg.12-A Airport issue has storied him By George Ricker The ordinance imposing a noise limit and landing fees at Sebastian Municipal Airport was born in con- troversy, and has moved to center stage of a drama involving those who use the airport and some of those who live around it. Following the discussions at Wednesday night's City Council meeting, it is clear that the last act of the drama has yet -to be performed. When the City Council heard the firstreading of the ordinance during a * special meeting, called for that pur- pose in conjunction with its June workshop meeting Wednesday night, it was hearing the result of a contro- versy that has lasted for several years and began to intensify following the passage of a charter amendment last year, one which also imposed lirnita- tions on the airport. Sponsored by Citizens Against Airport Expansion, the purpose of that charter amendment was to limit the growth of Sebastian Municipal Airport by requiring that before any aviation -related facilities could be added or expanded, the voters of Sebastian would have to approve such action. The referendum passed by an over- whelming majority on March 8, 1988. Passage of the first referendum set the stage for the second. Throughout the summer, the mas- ter plan for Sebastian Municipal Air- port kept percolating into the news and outagain as the consulting firm of Post, Buckley, Schuh & Jernigan prepared the final draft of the latest version of the plan. On Oct. 19, the City Council held a public hearing on the masterplan, one that attracted hundreds of people and generated public comment that was overwhelmingly negative. By then, the citizen's group that had sponsored the first airport refer- endum had renamed itself. Now call- ing itself Citizen's Airport Watch (CAW), the group consisted of many of the same members who had formed the original group. Roseland Attorney John Evans continued to be the principal spokes- man for the organization. At a regular council meeting .on Oct. 26, the City Council approved the final draft of the airport master nlan and forwarded it to the Federal Aviation Association (FAA) for its comments. The vote approving the master plan was 3-2 with Councilmen Robert McCarthy and Kenneth Roth voting against the plan, and Mayor Richard Votapka, Vice Mayor Pete Vallone and Councilman George Metcalf voting for it. Crying "foul," the opponents of the airport master plan argued the plan violated the spirit of the referendum, which voters had approved on March 8, and that, in calling for improve- ments to existing facilities, it would lead inevitably to an expansion of the airport. Proponents of the master plan said it was not expansionary. They noted that those items in the master plan, which came under the purview of the airport referendum, would have to.be approved by the voters before any action could be taken on them. Before the year, was,over, the CAW had launched a new petition drive.in an effort to secure the approval of Sebastian voters for even greater restrictions at the airport. The new charter amendment called for a noise limit of'65 dBA and a fee of $5 per flight operation, one takeoff and one landing,on aircraft using the airport. It prohibited the city from utilizing grant money from the state or federal government and from "strengthen- ine" anv existing runwav, laneuaee that has been interpreted by city offi- cials as preventing the city from paving the runways. At the same time, the CAW floated the idea that the city should seek to have the deed restrictions on the air- port property removed and utilize the land for an educational complex, an idea that attracted some enthusiastic support, but dropped out of sight as the political season got underway. The major issue in the campaign - although all of the candidates for the City Council insisted it was not the major issue facing the city, the new airport referendum was approved on March 14. .. In the same election, voters elected three new members to the City Coun- cil, ousting all three of the incum- bents who had run for re-election. . The only incumbent who came close to winning re-election was.in- cumbent Vice Mayor Kenneth Roth, who took over after Vallone resigned the post in December. Roth also was the only incumbent endorsed by the CAW. He ran fourth behind Frank Oberbeck in a race that was so close, it triggered an automatic recount. Oberbeck, who had spoken out against the referendum and in favor of the airport, was joined on the City Council by the other two candidates who, along with Roth, had been en- dorsed by the CAW - Lloyd Rondeau and Robert McCollum. Both men were members of the CAW. Following the election, the new City Council wasted no time undoing some of the things the previous City Council had done. A majority, composed of Vice Mayor Robert McCarthy, Rondeau and McCollum, voted to disband the airport advisory board,, to hire an air- port director. and - to employ the Washington, D.C., law firm of Cutler & Stanfield to draft the ordinances required by the newly -enacted air- port referendum. Votapka joined with the majority in voting to hire Cutler & Stanfield. He said, in view of the time con- straints imposed by the referendum, he did not think the City Council had many options. The City Council also voted to See History Page 13-A History (from 12-A) recall the airport master plan from the FAA. Cutler & Stanfield, it should be noted, had drafted the language of the charter amendments at the behest of the CAW. At the time the firm was hired by the city on April 20, one of the stipulations was that the law firm would have to end its association with the CAW. Council action to have engineering studies done, in preparation for ap- plying slurry seal to the airport's main runway and to remove the light- ing from that runway, was put on hold at the request of Eliot Cutler, a princi- pal partner in Cutler & Stanfield. 4h In making his recommendation to the council on May 24, Cutler said he believed the action contemplated, especially the removal of the runway lighting, sent the "wrong signal" to the FAA. Also, on Cutler's recommenda- tion, the City Council has authorized the preparation of a noise study, an economic study and a community airport plan by consultants selected by Cutler. The cost of the three studies, an estimated $29,000, will be paid out of the airport enterprise fund, as will the legal fees charged by Cutler's law firm. . Cutler advised the council onApril 20 the cost of his firm's legal work in preparing the ordinance would be from $25,000 to $50,000. He said defending the city against any litiga- tion, arising out of adoption of the ordinances, could cost "hundreds of thousands." Having held the first reading of the ordinance Wednesday, the City Council will hold a public hearing and will vote on final adoption of the ordinance at a special meeting to be held at 7 p.m. Monday. Following adoption of the ordi- nance, the city has 30 days to imple- ment the noise limit and landing fees. Of course, if the FAA and the city are able to reach the agreement pro- posed at Wednesday night's City Council meeting, it may be another year before the final act is played.