After 22 years of periodic public battles over runway lengths and jets at Chandler Municipal Airport, a fight between airport users and neighbors is heating up again.
The spark for this latest round is the Chandler Airport Alliance's business plan released by flight school owner John Walkup at a recent Airport Commission meeting.
That plan calls for a longer runway, and Walkup wants the city to end its practice of requiring voter approval for extension.
"The airport has stagnated for nine years as a result of not having a runway extension and it will not grow and will be less likely to sustain itself" without a longer runway, he said. Walkup said another election isn't realistic and the City Council needs to take airport control out of the political arena and make runway decisions itself.
That proposal upsets resident activist Guy Pepoy, who lives south of the airport. He said voters have spoken more than once against runway extensions and Walkup needs to give up the idea. Although Pepoy didn't enter the fray until after he moved to the area six years ago, some of his neighbors have been fighting proposed runway extensions and aircraft noise for more than 20 years.
One opponent, Beverly Parris, has lived on rural acreage northwest of the airport since 1979 and has been objecting to runway lengthening plans since 1985.
In 1989, a voter-approved initiative banned fixed-wing jets; however, lawsuits challenging the ban prompted the City Council to scrap it and instead limit runway length to 4,850 feet - too short for most jets.
Bond elections to finance runway extensions failed in 2000 and 2007. The most ballot had 10 bond propositions; funding for the runway extension was the smallest and the only one to fail.
Walkup, who opened his Chandler Air Service flight school in 1979, said the propositions lost by narrow margins in the wake of low voter turnout that followed emotional campaigns by small but vocal groups of opponents.
A longer runway will mean a safer - not a louder - airport, he said. Walkup said he knows of no other municipality that lets voters decide runway improvements and the City Council needs to wrest control of the airport's future from emotional campaigns.
Two council members say that's not likely to happen.
"I don't see this (runway extension) happening without an election," Councilman Jeff Weninger said.
"We've had three elections already and it's been voted down," said Councilman Rick Heumann. He said he admires Walkup's passion for the airport but said there has been no municipal discussion or support for his business plan.
Walkup is expected to take the plan to the City Council in February and said he wants members to look at Scottsdale's history of promoting and expanding its airport.
In October and over some vocal opposition, the Scottsdale City Council increased weight limits for business jets using the airport's 8,249-foot runway.
According to municipal reports, Scottsdale Airport has an estimated $140 million economic impact on the area. Chandler's airport has dual runways, 4,870 and 4,401 feet long, and has an estimated $53 million impact on the state's economy.
Pepoy said the only relevant numbers in his opinion are the public votes.
