Express your opinon on sale of PA Airport to Developers

AdamZ

AdamZ

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 24, 2005
Messages
14,872
Location
Montgomery County PA
Display Name
Adam Zucker
Home Airfield
KLOM
Express your opinon on whether Allentown PAs GA airport should be sold by the city to a developer or kept open.

Please take a minute and help the aviation family in the Lehigh Valley to save Queen City Airport. Thanks

Go to www.mcall.com
Select POLLS on the second line
Go to Question of the Day on the right side and vote no to closing Queen City Airport.
 
When can we start selling shopping malls and subdivisions to airport developers? Fair's fair.
 
  • YES (281 responses)
    29%
  • NO (695 responses)
    71%
976 total responses
(Results not scientific)
 
YES (296 responses)
26%
NO (858 responses)
74%
1154 total responses
(Results not scientific)
 
If I lived in town and revenue from the development was going to lower my taxes I think I might be for it...
 
ClimbnSink said:
If I lived in town and revenue from the development was going to lower my taxes I think I might be for it...
Click to expand...
Has that ever really happened outside of a developer's pitch to the city council?
 
Cap'n Jack said:
Has that ever really happened outside of a developer's pitch to the city council?
Click to expand...
Like other services the city provides, an airport is considered an expense. Say the airports annual budget is $1.5M. The developer not only buys the land from the city but turns it into a revenue producer. At first blush, this looks like a good deal for the city and many people glom onto it. Plus you have all the anti-airporters and airplane haters.
When NAS So Weymouth was closed by the base closure committee 10 years ago, making it a GA airport was THE VERY LAST thing the neighbor towns wanted. 40 minutes from the cape and islands, I suggested a flyin airport community. Instead, they threw up yet another outlet mall which would have included a direct link to the highway. That all fell threw and now they are just barely starting to develop the property.
It's not just the city council.
 
silver-eagle said:
Like other services the city provides, an airport is considered an expense. Say the airports annual budget is $1.5M. The developer not only buys the land from the city but turns it into a revenue producer. At first blush, this looks like a good deal for the city and many people glom onto it. Plus you have all the anti-airporters and airplane haters.
When NAS So Weymouth was closed by the base closure committee 10 years ago, making it a GA airport was THE VERY LAST thing the neighbor towns wanted. 40 minutes from the cape and islands, I suggested a flyin airport community. Instead, they threw up yet another outlet mall which would have included a direct link to the highway. That all fell threw and now they are just barely starting to develop the property.
It's not just the city council.
Click to expand...

Same thing happening here in SE PA at the former Willow Grove Naval Air Station (NXX) which closed a few months ago. Anti-airport sentiment was loud and the local reuse board used dramatic theater to play to their demands. Long story short, the airport idea was rejected without any significant discussion and, more importantly, without a suitable alternate plan. The "consultants" hired by the board have submitted several proposals, all of which include dense and/or expensive housing and big box retail. All of this in an area that's already overcrowded, in which foreclosures are rampant, and in which empty retail abounds. I predict that NXX will languish for a decade before we see any progress on that site. Frustrating as can be, because I believe that converting it to a civilian airport would have had an almost immediate positive financial impact.
 
The only way a GA airport goes revenue positive is with federal money.:mad2: Then you are just bribing yourself with your own money(minus handling fees.)
 
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