The $10.9 million runway relocation and expansion project at the Lake Elmo Airport will soon be underway.
But the controversy around the plan, which has created years of debate, has not gone away. At least one neighbor opposed to the plan predicts it will end up in court.
Officials from the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which owns and operates the airport, say the project is needed to improve safety — for pilots and for nearby residents.
A longer runway will be safer, especially during inclement weather, and will enable pilots to fly with heavier loads, airport officials say. The runway’s pavement has reached the end of its service life and must be replaced.
But some neighbors oppose the plan, saying the small recreational airport doesn’t get enough use to justify the price tag.
“You could be out here for hours and never see an airplane,” said Laura Kaschmitter, who lives across the street from airport property.
And there are two other airports within two minutes, notes Dave Schultz, a member of the West Lakeland Township board.
Lake Elmo Airport opened in 1951 and is one of 83 intermediate airports located in Minnesota. It’s one of the state’s busiest, but its 2,850-foot runway is the fifth shortest.
WHAT WORK WILL BE DONE
Crews this fall are slated to begin work on 30th Street North, which runs south of the airport and is being moved to accommodate a new 3,500-foot runway and runway protection zone.
Construction of the new runway, which will be located about 700 feet northeast of the airport’s primary one, will begin next year. The existing 2,850-foot runway is being converted into a partial parallel taxiway.
The airport’s crosswind runway also will be reconstructed and extended — to 2,750 feet from 2,500 feet — and lights will be added for nighttime flying.
The entire project is expected to be completed in 2021.
When the runway is extended to 3,500 feet, it will still be smaller than the 5,000-foot runways at Holman Field, Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie and the Anoka County-Blaine Airport, according to the airports commission.
REMAINING MOSTLY RECREATIONAL
The Metropolitan Airports Commission expects the airport, which has no control tower, to continue being used by mostly recreational, training and small-business planes. About 200 aircraft are based at the airport, and that number is expected to remain about the same.
The runway’s pavement and subsurface, which is original, “needs to be completely redone,” said Melissa Scovronski, a spokeswoman for the airports commission. “It has been repaired and repaired and repaired.”
The Federal Aviation Administration has also been pushing for more enforcement of its runway protection zones — land which lies beyond runways that is supposed to be kept clear of structures, public roads and railroads.
Lake Elmo Airport’s runway protection zone on the north end of its existing primary runway falls over Manning Avenue, the Union Pacific Railroad and onto about 5 acres of neighboring land. Moving the runway means all of the runway protection zones will be kept on airport property, according to the airports commission.
Moving the runway protection and safety zone boundaries north and farther east “reduces the impact in Lake Elmo,” said City Administrator Kristina Handt.
COMPLAINTS FOCUS ON ROAD, IMPACT
Schultz questions why the airport needs to expand when the New Richmond, Wis., Airport and Holman Field, the airport in downtown St. Paul, are within a 20-minute drive.
“It doesn’t make sense to put money into an airport halfway between these two other airports,” he said.
He also takes issue with plans for 30th Street North. The airports commission originally proposed realigning the road around the south end of the new runway on airport land but revised those plans so the street could connect back to the existing Neal Avenue intersection.
The revised plan calls for a curve in the road, which will be banked, he said.
The road, which divides Baytown and West Lakeland townships, is a major east-west corridor in the area, Kaschmitter said. “How many pilots have airplanes of the size that would benefit from a longer runway?” she said. “And there are how many people who drive on 30th? 1,500 to 2,000 a day. Just do the math. Which is more important, the road or the airport?”
The road is being designed and engineered to be safe, said Scovronski, who noted that township planners are reviewing the design and providing input on it.
Mary Vierling, who lives across the street from airport property, said she expects the matter to end up in court.
“They’ve been good neighbors,” she said. “The grandkids love sitting out with a Popsicle and watching the planes come and go. We’ve enjoyed it. But this is not enjoyable anymore. This has taken all the fun out of it.”
NOT ALL ARE UPSET
Dozens of new houses have been built recently in the city just west of the airport. The Easton Village housing development is in its fifth phase, with 143 platted lots, and “there doesn’t seem to be any slowing down,” said Lake Elmo’s Handt. The Northport housing development is in its second phase with 65 lots platted.
“We’ve had about 100 houses built in the last three years between the Easton and Northport developments,” she said.
Residents of the new housing developments have not had any issues with the airport as far as Handt knows. “We hear more complaints about the railroad noise,” she said.
COMING TOGETHER ON ZONING
On Tuesday, the Lake Elmo Airport Joint Zoning Board, which consists of representatives from the airports commission, Washington County, Lake Elmo, Oak Park Heights and Baytown and West Lakeland townships, will meet for the first time. The board is charged with developing a zoning ordinance for land uses around the airport.
“They want a unified set of zoning ordinances that cover that space above the ground — height structures, where they can be — all around the airport,” said Rick Weyrauch, a supervisor from Baytown Township who has been appointed to represent Baytown on the board.
Weyrauch said he supports the runway expansion. One added benefit of moving the runway: the expansion of Manning Avenue from a two-lane roadway to a four-lane roadway will be allowed, he said.
Weyrauch, who is a pilot, said he moved to Baytown to be close to the airport. “There’s an airport there, and it’s always been there, and they’re going to continue to do more airport stuff there,” he said.
SOME WARY OF CHANGES’ IMPACT
But Schultz said he expects affected landowners won’t be happy to learn the use of their property may be curtailed by zoning.
Schultz pointed to a 2011 Minnesota Supreme Court ruling that upheld a decision that a Rochester couple suffered a substantial loss in property value in 2002 when the Rochester International Airport Joint Zoning Board expanded the airport’s safety zone boundaries and reduced the available uses of their property.
“The joint zoning board in Rochester had to compensate the landowner,” he said.
Scovronski said the airports commission wants to work with “communities and try to, to the extent possible, allow for growth of communities that’s appropriate to the fact that you have an airport right there.”
There is no deadline for the zoning board’s work, she said. “We can go ahead with construction without zoning in place, but we would much rather the (joint zoning board) do its work ahead of that.”