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Publication Date: Friday, August 20, 2004 Airport committee meets Thursday
Airport committee meets Thursday
(August 20, 2004) Round 2 of 6-part Tri-Valley debate on expansion plans
by Jeb Bing
The 21-member Livermore Airport Advisory Committee will hold the second of its six scheduled meetings Thursday in its effort to develop a recommendation satisfactory to Tri-Valley cities over airport expansion plans.
The committee, organized by the Livermore City Council, is co-chaired by Livermore Councilwoman Lorraine Dietrich and insurance executive Cecil Brewer, representing the Livermore Chamber of Commerce.
The committee was formed in response to concerns by the city councils of Pleasanton and Dublin and residents in those cities and Livermore who could be affected by the expansion because of increased air traffic and noise and safety issues. The proposed expansion would:
¥ Increase the annual number of flights out of the municipally owned airport from 257,500 in 2001 to 370,000 in 2020; and, during the same period,
¥ Increase jet flights from 2,220 to 18,500;
¥ Increase the number of planes based at the airport from 594 to 898, with the number of jets growing from 2 to 30; and,
¥ Increase flight training exercises and the number of charter flights using the airport.
Calling the plan unacceptable and in separate actions, both the Pleasanton City Council and a newly formed Livermore Airport Citizens Group (LACG) asked that the proposal be pulled back and revised downward.
At its first meeting, the advisory committee spent much of the time discussing organizational structure and its mission.
"It was an interesting process, which is being directed by the Livermore City Council," said Pleasanton Councilwoman Jennifer Hosterman, who is Pleasanton's representative on the committee.
"As pleased as I am to have been chosen to be a part of this open dialogue on the proposed airport expansion, I am also concerned about the way the committee is structured," she added. "Out of 21 members, eight of them are pilots. There is also an apparent employer-employee relationship on the committee of people who may work for airport-related businesses. But we haven't been given a list of committee members and their current employment to see what ties they have to the airport, if any."
Even so, Hosterman praised Livermore officials for recognizing the airport's impact on the Tri-Valley and moving to include neighboring cities in its consideration of expansion plans.
"My position is that the airport expansion proposal represents such a huge and distinct difference from the current airport operation that it requires a full environmental impact report (EIR)," Hosterman said. "That's also the position of the Pleasanton City Council, and it's the position Dublin Mayor Janet Lockhart has taken, too."
A new EIR would add more than $100,000 in costs and at least another year in environmental research time to the airport expansion planning, and Livermore Mayor Marshall Kamena and other officials believe it is unnecessary. Kamena said an earlier EIR on the expansion makes a new one unnecessary. Critics have argued that the old EIR did not take into consideration possible noise and safety impacts that increased air traffic would have in the skies over Pleasanton and Dublin.
At a recent public forum of Tri-Valley mayors, Pleasanton Mayor Tom Pico and Lockhart reiterated their concerns over airport expansion plans.
"What you can do to keep peace in the family is to conduct a full-scale EIR so that we can see what the airport expansion impact would be," Pico told Kamena.
"Our first meeting gave everyone a chance to get acclimated and learn why the committee has been organized and what our objectives are," committee co-chair Brewer said. "Now we are ready to start work on the issues we have identified and hammer them out."
Brewer said that while six meetings have been scheduled before the early December deadline of submitting the committee's recommendation to the Livermore council, committee members could decide to hold more if needed.
"One important point to make is that our charge is to make a recommendation to the City Council in December," Brewer explained. "I'm almost certain there will be a minority report that goes along with it. In fact, there could be 21 different reports. Given the makeup of the committee, this is probably not going to be a single recommendation that's going to be made with gold ribbons tied around it."
The Livermore Airport Advisory Committee meeting will be held from 7-10 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 26, at the Doubletree Hotel, 720 Las Flores Road, in Livermore's Springtown community. The public is invited to attend, with public comments scheduled from 9:30 to 10 p.m.
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