Skeptics of allowing scheduled service flights to Gwinnett County’s Briscoe Field will argue why it can’t work in Gwinnett. I have heard many reasons:
There will be too much noise pollution. I don’t want 787 Dreamliners flying over my home. It is too big a risk for taxpayers and would cost too much to expand the airport. It is too densely populated around the airport, and it will reduce home values by 25 percent. There will be no economic benefit.
On the surface, some of these arguments sound reasonable. However, when the facts are considered, the opposition’s arguments just don’t fly.
First, our coalition (www. flygwinnettforward.com) is not advocating Briscoe as a reliever facility for Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. A recent study said it would cost more than $2 billion to expand Briscoe for such a purpose, and considerable land acquisition and geographical expansion would be required.
However, everyone should understand that Briscoe is already a commercial airport. It sits on more than 500 acres and has a runway length of 6,000 feet. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, it had 70,987 flight operations in 2010, down from its peak of 108,000. Currently, the runway could be lengthened approximately 500 feet and a 10-gate passenger terminal could be constructed.
Not “expanding” the airport resolves a few immediate concerns. The shorter runway length limits the size of aircraft that could service the airport, and using existing property for the terminal would cost a fraction of the amount of a true expansion. Ten gates would reasonably allow for 70 to 80 flights a day. Also, measured in decibels, many of the commercial aircraft that can utilize a short-field airport are quieter than some of the aircraft that currently use Briscoe.
Second, allowing limited scheduled service at Briscoe could actually enhance Gwinnett’s quality of life, not reduce it.
There are numerous examples across the country of regional airports with scheduled service that are in successful communities with an excellent quality of life. In fact, many of them, such as those in Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C., and Westchester, N.Y. have homes valued from $500,000 to more than $1 million within two miles of the end of a runway. Many regional airports have higher densities of homes and also have hospitals, schools and colleges nearby.
These airports do not ruin the surrounding quality of life, but rather help drive the overall economic climate that makes these communities desirable places to live and locate businesses that create jobs.
For example, according to Greenville-Spartanburg Airport, the airport has an economic output of $377 million to the local area. It is simply naive to state that adding scheduled service to Briscoe — and adding it to our region’s economic development package — would not help bring significant numbers of jobs to our county.
Some of the opposition points to the immediate area surrounding Hartsfield-Jackson, the busiest airport in the world, and says that would come to Lawrenceville if we allow a community regional airport. That analogy is like comparing a Super Walmart to a new QuikTrip.
We have the opportunity in Gwinnett to build an airport that serves the needs of and contributes to the community from the ground up, and we can develop the parameters around which it has to function. Best of all, we can do it with private dollars and not on the backs of the taxpayers.
Mike Royal is a member of Fly Gwinnett Forward.
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