Now that we have heard from Concerned Critter and have
gotten the “official” explanation of the MoDOT letter, I want to print my
opinion of what it really means.
It appears that MoDOT has been under some pressure to take a
position on the closure. I do not think
that it came from the Feds, closure is off the table at this point. It appears that outside political pressure
has been introduced to get MoDOT to produce this letter.
Take notice here that the letter simply states that they are
not going to oppose. What it does not
state is that they are going to sign off on a closure plan. What has happened here is that the city has
not provided a plan; there is nothing to sign off on. This does not mean that the city can shove
any plan in front of MoDOT and the will sign off on it. MoDOT is the same as any other governmental agency;
they have to follow the law.
I do know this; there is no support anywhere in the FAA organization
for what St. Clair is trying to say is a plan, or what you would call the St.
Clair concept of a plan. It does not
appear that the city has a clear understanding of what a plan is supposed to
consist of, let alone have the resources to put a plan in front of the Feds.
I believe "the plan" the city is pursuing is the comprehensive plan developed through a professionally led focus group process in 2008. I have been trying to study and understand it. Like many such plans, it is long on demographics, process, goals and objectives, and short on specifics. The airport is wrapped up in Goal #8. Clearly and appropriately this is a self-centered plan to bring prosperity to the local community, and apparently no-one was involved in the process who could help them understand the "golden goose" side of having an airport. They just view it as an albatross. For anyone who wants to try to make sense of it all, you can easily Google it to the following link: stclairmo.com/stclairmo/pdf/comprehensiveplan.pdf
ReplyDeleteThe plan the city is trying to project is to use the money from the St. Clair airport to further development at other airports. This will require a MoDOT approved consulting firm and a FAA approved plan along with contracts at other airports to use the funds to build additional hangars. So far the city has not produced a plan and now the FAA will not talk about a plan until the airport is in compliance.
DeleteThe other plan is to try and show that the airport is no longer sustainable with normal maintenance and is no longer needed. What the city has tried to do is to ignore maintenance and force tenants off of the airport with unfair and unreasonable hangar rates. 60% vacancy is proof of unreasonable rates.
It is obvious that the comprehensive plan is all about closing the airport. Not to have investigated the possibility of closure more than the city did is also a sign of bad planning, poor judgment and poor leadership. Without an alternate site for development, the comprehensive plan appears to be nothing more than a waste of a HUGE AMOUNT of St. Clair taxpayer’s money on a plan that will not work.
The comprehensive plan did identify a number of needs and valid goals for St. Clair, and progress on some of them, like street and associated infrastructure improvements are evident. The process did not seem to include any consideration of federal obligations and seemed to be heavily influenced by real estate developers.
ReplyDeleteI realize "the plan" you are seeking and the FAA is requiring is a very different plan related specifically to the airport, federal obligations, and general aviation. I'm just trying to make sense of it all. Why would a city with such limited resources, spend so much on this effort?
It is all about closing the airport, plain and simple.
DeleteThe only plan is to close the airport. No alternative plan makes no sense knowing the difficulty of closure.
ReplyDeleteSmells of personal reasons or some under the table good old boy deal?