The City Council should give Mayor Baker some time to work out his plan for Albert Whitted Airport so he can bring it to St. Petersburg residents and the council for consideration.

There is growing support for St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker's one-runway plan for Albert Whitted Airport, and the mayor has made a reasonable request of the City Council. Baker has asked the council to delay a decision on the airport for one year to allow him to prove that his plan can win approval from the Federal Aviation Administration and Florida Department of Transportation, whose grant money will be necessary to make airport improvements. He has also asked that a public hearing on the airport (scheduled for Jan. 30) be delayed until he has had time to gather his information.

A council interested in fair play and protecting the public's interest in the city-owned airport would quickly agree with Baker. After all, the mayor's compromise plan has won support from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg and All Children's Hospital, both on the flight path of the east-west runway that Baker would shut down. The North Downtown Neighborhood Association has called on the council to delay action for a year "to allow time for public debate and discussion." And Baker expects backing from other groups once they have more details.

Even the Airport Advisory Committee, which is pushing a rival plan and seems to have some council members running scared, thinks Baker should have time to prove his case. "We suggest that council provide Mayor Baker and his staff one (1) year to develop a report on the feasibility of the single runway to satisfy FAA and FDOT requirements for a safe airport," committee Chairman Ruth Varn said in a letter to the council.

Varn and the advisory committee favor the so-called master plan, which would cost taxpayers millions of dollars, erect two- and three-story metal hangars on the waterfront and extend the east-west runway 1,000 feet into Tampa Bay. Yet the airport currently loses money, relying on city taxpayers and even utility customers to subsidize its operations.

Where the advisory committee would put metal hangars, Baker would create a park and return some of the waterfront to the public. Also important, Baker has a way to pay for airport improvements without soaking taxpayers further. He would sell some of the interior portions of the 110 acres for development and use the proceeds for new facilities, giving the airport a chance to be a moneymaker.

But Baker needs a little time to pull his plan together. Instead of giving him that opportunity, the council has scheduled a public hearing in two weeks. How can St. Petersburg residents, who own the airport, be ready to discuss the merits of Baker's plan when he hasn't had a chance to prove his case? A likely scenario for the public hearing, if the council decides Thursday to go forward with it, is that self-interested backers of the master plan will show up in force to intimidate council members.

There is a better way forward. Let Baker develop his plan and find out if he can win FAA and FDOT support. Let the mayor hold workshops for the public so that they understand the issues and what he is proposing. Only in that way can the public be fully informed and only in that way can the council make a wise decision for the future.

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