Opposition to airport master plan organized

As Pitkin County continues work on a new airport master plan and its commissioners consider building a new terminal, a small group led by a former local aviation official has organized to oppose the proposal.

Dubbed “Citizens For Responsible Airport Development,” the group is led by Cliff Runge, who oversaw the airport’s fixed-base operator for 20 years.

“In a nutshell,” the group of seven wrote in a letter to county officials, “we believe that what is happening (and about to happen), at the airport is out of control.”

Among their concerns are the size of the 80,000-square-foot terminal included in the latest iteration of the master plan, the possibility of developing the west side of the airport site for private aviation use, and expanded parking facilities that would accommodate 1,300 spaces.

The county commissioners are expected to finalize an airport plan this summer.

Opportunity for Runge — and any members of the public — to critique and shape the master plan has been ample. Master planners, led by airport director Jim Elwood and consultants from Denver-based Barnard Dunkelberg & Co., have held regular public open houses for more than a year. Runge has attended them regularly, but said his group’s concerns have not been heard.

“I’m not trying to pick it apart, I’m just saying it doesn’t reflect who we are here,” he said of the development plan.

Runge noted that the regional airport in Santa Barbara, Calif. accommodates more than 1.5 million annual passengers in a 60,000-square-foot terminal. Master planners project roughly 250,000 passengers annually coming through Aspen by 2017, up from 203,500 in 2006. Runge’s group claims that an 80,000-square-foot terminal for that many passengers is unnecessary and inconsistent with local small-development character.

It would increase the current terminal from about 45,000 square feet to 80,000 and add a second floor.

“They’re pretty much committed to the concept of a large two-story building,” he said. “It’s too large. The terminal is overkill.”

Elwood and the master planning team have concluded that the current facility is inadequate and lacks some basic functions due its design. Post-9/11 federal security mandates, for instance, cut off the passenger waiting area from the restaurant and made it so those standing in line for screening do so on an upward-sloping ramp. Back-of-house operations in the terminal are cramped as well, they’ve said.

Runge said development on the west side of the airport site has been his chief concern. Master planners have floated the idea of adding 160,000 square feet of hangars for private jets there as part of a second fixed-base operator for private planes. The commissioners will decide whether to allot space for a second fixed-base operator there, or on the east side next to the current one.

“I just don’t think that’s in character with this town,” Runge said of the large private plane hangar space. “I’ve protested long and loud about that internally to the county.”

Runge this week sent a breakdown of his concerns to the commissioners and other county officials, along with the Aspen Board of Realtors, which hosted Elwood for a luncheon presentation on the master plan on Thursday.

Runge oversaw the airport’s fixed-base operator from 1985 to 2005. His projects included development of the current private aviation operations on the east side of the airport.

He has been lobbying the county since 2010 to build a second fixed-base operator on the east side, beside the current one. His plan includes carbon-offsetting measures that would take $1 from each gallon of fuel sold and put it toward renewable energy development.

“We thought this was a magnificent idea,” he said of himself and business partner Andrew Doremus, “and it’s just been ignored.”

If the master plan ends up calling for a second fixed-based operator, Runge could presumably bid to get the job with his proposal. Because of that interest, some question his motivation in criticizing the airport master plan.

John McBride, developer of the Aspen Airport Business Center across the highway from the airport, is unaffiliated with Runge’s group. But he said he shares some of their concerns.

“I don’t see that there’s a need for a two-story terminal,” he said. “It seems like overkill to me.”

McBride also has questioned projections that the number of people served by the airport will spike in coming years, at the levels projected by airport consultants.

Source:  http://www.aspendailynews.com