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Official lobbies to keep airport
By BRYAN GILMER, Times Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG -- City Council member James Bennett pushed his colleagues Thursday to commit to keeping Albert Whitted Airport instead of turning the waterfront land into a new downtown neighborhood. "This debate has gone on for decades," he told them. "We can let it go on for many more, or we can begin the process of responsibility. We have arrived at a point that Albert Whitted Airport needs our endorsement to move forward." The City Council agreed to Bennett's suggestion to schedule a three-hour discussion of the airport. It will begin at noon Nov. 12. For more than a year, the council has weighed what to do with the 110 acres that jut into Tampa Bay. The site has held the airport since St. Petersburg was a small town, and the airport caters to a tight-knit community who use propeller-driven planes for recreation or business. City Economic Development director Ron Barton told the council in March that the land is underutilized. The city should close the airport and sell part of the land to a private developer, he said. Low-rise buildings could hold as many as 4,000 new homes, and the waterfront portion of the tract could become more than a mile of new waterfront park. Council members were intrigued, and asked Barton for more information. No. 1, what would it cost? And No. 2, if the city invested in the airport, how much economic impact could it generate? He has yet to provide them answers to those questions, airport supporters point out. Barton's boss, Mayor Rick Baker, has said there is no reason to hurry a decision about the airport's future. Meanwhile, a core group of airport users has lobbied fiercely for the City Council to do exactly what Bennett proposed Thursday: kill redevelopment discussions and approve a long-term plan for the airport. They have recently put signs in their yards and cars that say, "Support Albert Whitted Airport." Rather than an informal "workshop" session at which no action can be taken, Bennett pitched the meeting as a "committee of the whole," which allows preliminary votes to be taken. "I believe the tactic of a committee of the whole is to commit this council to a direction," member Jay Lasita said. "So I believe (the discussion) should be televised." Bennett noted that the airport has no director and predicted that it would be nearly impossible to hire one while the airport's future is in question. And he said the city's reluctance to spend on the airport may lead to problems. "Three years have gone by when FDOT grants for normal operations have not been used," he said. "There are improvements to the tower, runways, lighting and radio systems to be considered. The gravity of this situation is (that) if we don't take these grants and they go away, we will eventually be operating an unsafe airport." Baker has not yet said what he thinks should be done with the land. He again said the long thought process about Whitted is the right approach. "I believe a thorough public discussion has been appropriate and will be appropriate," he said. At the November meeting, "I'll be ready to set forth all the information we have and offer a recommendation as well."
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
