Downtown leaders want airport closed
Steve Lillebuen
Edmonton Journal
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
EDMONTON - So few people use the City Centre Airport that "the case is overwhelmingly in favour of closing it," says the head of the Downtown Business Association.
"This is not a debate about air service anymore," said Jim Taylor, a former city councillor who was elected in 1995, the same year as the referendum in which voters endorsed consolidating flights at the Edmonton International Airport.
A controversial report, made public today after the Edmonton Journal obtained confidential details, says the city could earn more than $500 million by selling the airport and transforming it into neighbourhood for more than 32,000 people. The sale would assist downtown revitalization, the report says, by eliminating zoning "overlay" that restricts the height of buildings to maintain safe flightpaths.
A building-height restriction has been sacrificing growth in the downtown core in the past few years, Taylor said.
The new Epcor Tower had to be downgraded to 28 storeys from 36 while the loss of every floor eliminated by the overlay cuts $110,000 annually in city property taxes, the report says.
The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology is thrilled with the prospect of expanding if the airport were ever closed, said George Andrews, NAIT's vice-president of external relations.
"This is the last kind of island in Edmonton," he said of the 217-hectare airport site. "There are huge opportunities to make it a jewel in sustainable development."
The NAIT campus is currently "landlocked" by the airport and cornered on each side, he said. Some campus buildings are also restricted in height by flightpaths while others are at 200 per cent capacity.
The Kingsway Business Association, along with the Commuter Air Access Network of Alberta, are lobbying to keep the airport open. The air network has been running full-page ads in newspapers, arguing that the airport restrictions should be eased to allow for larger, 19-passenger planes.
Currently, the vast majority of flights at the City Centre Airport are restricted to private 10-seater planes, but there are several flight schools, an RCMP helicopter and charter services that serve northern communities on the site.
Graham Davis, general manager of Air Mikisew, said closing the airport would adversely impact passengers who fly into Fort McMurray and Fort Chipewyan.
"This would put a real crunch on us," he said.
The airline would likely discontinue its flight service to Fort McMurray if they were forced into using the International airport, he said. As a small airline owned by the Mikisew Cree First Nation, they couldn't afford to compete against WestJet and other commercial airlines, he said.
And if the airport were grounded, fixed-wing medical flights to the nearby Royal Alexandra Hospital would have to be redirected, said Capital Health spokesman Steve Buick.
"But that's a setback that we can reasonably manage," he said.
© Edmonton Journal 2008
Edmonton Journal
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
EDMONTON - So few people use the City Centre Airport that "the case is overwhelmingly in favour of closing it," says the head of the Downtown Business Association.
"This is not a debate about air service anymore," said Jim Taylor, a former city councillor who was elected in 1995, the same year as the referendum in which voters endorsed consolidating flights at the Edmonton International Airport.
A controversial report, made public today after the Edmonton Journal obtained confidential details, says the city could earn more than $500 million by selling the airport and transforming it into neighbourhood for more than 32,000 people. The sale would assist downtown revitalization, the report says, by eliminating zoning "overlay" that restricts the height of buildings to maintain safe flightpaths.
A building-height restriction has been sacrificing growth in the downtown core in the past few years, Taylor said.
The new Epcor Tower had to be downgraded to 28 storeys from 36 while the loss of every floor eliminated by the overlay cuts $110,000 annually in city property taxes, the report says.
The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology is thrilled with the prospect of expanding if the airport were ever closed, said George Andrews, NAIT's vice-president of external relations.
"This is the last kind of island in Edmonton," he said of the 217-hectare airport site. "There are huge opportunities to make it a jewel in sustainable development."
The NAIT campus is currently "landlocked" by the airport and cornered on each side, he said. Some campus buildings are also restricted in height by flightpaths while others are at 200 per cent capacity.
The Kingsway Business Association, along with the Commuter Air Access Network of Alberta, are lobbying to keep the airport open. The air network has been running full-page ads in newspapers, arguing that the airport restrictions should be eased to allow for larger, 19-passenger planes.
Currently, the vast majority of flights at the City Centre Airport are restricted to private 10-seater planes, but there are several flight schools, an RCMP helicopter and charter services that serve northern communities on the site.
Graham Davis, general manager of Air Mikisew, said closing the airport would adversely impact passengers who fly into Fort McMurray and Fort Chipewyan.
"This would put a real crunch on us," he said.
The airline would likely discontinue its flight service to Fort McMurray if they were forced into using the International airport, he said. As a small airline owned by the Mikisew Cree First Nation, they couldn't afford to compete against WestJet and other commercial airlines, he said.
And if the airport were grounded, fixed-wing medical flights to the nearby Royal Alexandra Hospital would have to be redirected, said Capital Health spokesman Steve Buick.
"But that's a setback that we can reasonably manage," he said.
© Edmonton Journal 2008
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