Broward’s fight to build a $790 million airport runway sloping six stories over U.S. 1 finally broke free Tuesday from a legal street fight with tenaciously opposed Dania Beach that stretched back to the first whispers of the plans in the late 1980s.
Only a few Dania residents spoke, and Broward County commissioners then voted unanimously, 7-0 with two members absent, on a legal settlement with that city. Under the settlement, Dania will drop its longstanding litigation, and hundreds of runway neighbors who'll endure high noise when the runway opens will be eligible for soundproofing and for a payment of 20 percent of the value of their homes, to make up for the life-changing development.
Aviation Director Kent George said Broward started trudging in 1988 toward building a runway. We have a newspaper story in our archives from 1987, about it. In 1993, Dania filed its lawsuit.
Tuesday, Dania Mayor Anne Castro sat silent in the audience. The issue that's torn up her city for years and marked the politics there all this time, had already been pushed forward there. Dania commissioners voted unanimously twice to approve the legal settlement over Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Since Dania lost a crucial ruling last year, opposition started winding down there. Castro, who lives in the affected area, had said residents accepted the runway was coming, but wanted to be compensated fairly. Those who plan to move away wanted help selling, and wanted the airport to make up for their lost market value. That will heppen, under the settlement.
George said he'll ask Wednesday for a December meeting with the Federal Aviation Administration, which has give final signoff because it provides the overhwhelming majority of funds. The feds have an interest in promoting air travel, and airport expansions, and they spend significant funds doing so.
County officials said the FAA is expected to approve the deal, the cash payments of which are unprecedented in airport expansions.
Without the cash payments, homeowners were only able to get help selling homes and receiving a portion of lost market value, but on a time table that could take decades. In order to avoid flooding the real estate market with Dania homes, the plan calls for slowly timed program of sales assitance.
George said it's not reasonable to make some homeowners wait 35 years to get sales assistance from the county.
"This is a groundbreaking approach,'' he said of the cash payment alternative. "I think it’s innovitve, I think it’s ideal and I think it’s something the FAA should embrace.''
Broward commissioners, including Kristin Jacobs, John Rodstrom and Ilene Lieberman, said they're interested in making the settlement better for Dania. But they had to approve the settlement as-is Tuesday.
One issue homeowners are gloomy about: those whose homes fit into a zone where noise is expected to exceed 65 decibals are eligible for cash. Their neighbors next door or across the street who are outside that zone are not. About 850 homes are in the high noise zone. About 1,700 homes will get soundproofing, because the county agreed to soundproof homes to the natural neighborhood boundaries and the rest of the blocks in cases where some homes fall outside that 65-decibal zone.
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