Muni airport issue, it seems, is forever stuck circling the city
Scott McKeen
The Edmonton Journal
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
This is democracy.
City hall consults the public on how best to consult the public on the future of the City Centre Airport. It hires a consultant to consult with members of the public to develop a public consultation process. The consultant writes recommendations to public officials, to be unveiled in early March.
Public consultation will then begin in earnest. Perhaps public hearings. Finally, after consulting the public, our public officials will make a decision in public sometime this July.
And my head hurts. My head already hurts and we aren't even at the point where we — heads again like we've butted heads for the last 50 years over our downtown airport.
The old Muni continues to haunt us, despite more than 50 years of calls for its closure and despite a referendum in 1995 that called for scheduled air service to be consolidated at the International Airport. OK, not everyone wants this over with. Aviation businesses and private pilots are quite smitten with their airport.
The nearby Kingsway Business Association is a key force in the Muni lobby. So are aviation and heritage buffs, who feel a great attachment to the old Blatchford Field, with its grand history in military and civil aviation.
Even outsiders feel strongly about the airport. People from places such as Calgary and Lethbridge would love to fly again into our convenient downtown airport. So all mentioned above will be consulted in the consultation process. So will people living in neighbourhoods under the airport's flight paths. Developers and downtown businesses will have a say, too, since airport safety regulations restrict the height of buildings downtown. Health-care officials will be interviewed, since medical patients are still flown into the downtown airport.
Maybe you'll have a say, too. If you have an opinion, city hall wants to hear it.
There's a catch, though. The discussion is supposed to be about the future use of the airport lands, not the future of aviation at the airport. Simply put, increasing air service at the City Centre Airport is supposed to be a non-starter.
Except no one should be naive. The vested interests mentioned above, along with city councillors Ron Hayter and Tony Caterina, want to talk about the potential of returning the Muni to past glory.
They will say a downtown airport makes Edmonton unique and attractive to business. They will say the economic development potential of marketing this asset is huge. They will remind us that the downtown airport is our symbolic Gateway to the North, as well as a link to future oilsands wealth and a storied past.
We're not supposed to rehash that old debate. We're supposed to talk about the airport as it now functions, as a general aviation centre with medivacs and a few scheduled flights to the North.
We're supposed to compare the status quo to the idea of redeveloping the land into a mixed-use, anti-sprawl urban village of 32,000 people, connected to downtown by LRT. If the airport is shuttered, NAIT could expand on its main campus instead of building a south campus far from future LRT.
Then there's the fact that the city expects it could earn $500 million by redeveloping the site. That money could be used to, say, extend LRT to the International Airport or create another investment fund to subsidize property taxes.
Caterina and Hayter complain the process is rigged. It isn't rigged. It's perspective, man. You've just got vested interests on one side and public interests on the other.
The public interest in improving air service manifested itself in the 1995 referendum that helped turn the International into the fastest-growing major airport in Canada.
The public interest now is in doing what's best for Edmonton, not a select few. The public interest is in moving forward, not backwards.
The public interest is in seeing an end to this debate. Yes, city council is bending over backwards to consult airport tenants, airport users and airport-area businesses.
It will consult neighbourhoods and northern communities and hospitals and aviation experts. And it will consult citizens and consult consultants.
But a day is coming when the consulting will have to stop. On that day, the mayor and councillors will have all the opinions and information in hand. They'll have to make a decision.
You know what I fear? They'll turn it back to us in the form of a public referendum.
[email protected]
© The Edmonton Journal 2009
Copyright © 2009 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
http://www2.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=3e2bae08-c12a-43a1-8315-ecab6d24ddba&sponsor=
Threaded Mode