Experts push master plan for airport

Web posted September 24, 2000

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By Justin Martin
Staff Writer

It's tough trying to bring an airport into the 21st century, especially when that airport's layout plan dates back to the Nixon administration.

It's even tougher when the 2-inch-thick airport master plan/terminal area study for Augusta Regional Airport is missing chapters on airfield use, industrial development, marketing surveys and several other strategic planning guides normally found in such a document.

Without these updated, accurate guides, airport experts say, keeping up with the constant changes of the airline industry can be nearly impossible.

That's the situation the Augusta Aviation Commission finds itself in these days as it tries to improve Augusta Regional Airport.

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``Most airports of the stature and size and scope (of Augusta Regional Airport) have their master plan updated every five years,'' said Michael Moroney, an aviation consultant with Black & Veatch Corp. ``I find it odd to learn (Augusta) didn't develop a master plan in 1995 or 1990... A master plan can be tremendous justification for additional growth.''

Not only does it provide a road map for future development, but a master plan - when combined with a five-year capital improvement program - shows the Federal Aviation Administration what an airport is trying to accomplish.

If the FAA knows what an airport wants to accomplish, it is much more likely to provide federal grants to help offset the cost of a terminal expansion project, runway and apron improvements and other airport upgrades.

``Airports do not have to do a master plan,'' said Ranes Black, assistant manager for the FAA's Southern District airport offices in Atlanta. ``They don't have to have one at all. But it is a smart thing to do.''

It's a smart thing to do, airport experts say, because having a master plan allows private businesses to get a sense of an airport's economic endeavors.

But Augusta doesn't have one, so neither the FAA nor private business has any way of knowing what's going on at Augusta Regional Airport.

Ed Skinner, chairman of the Augusta Aviation Commission, has helped run Augusta Regional Airport since 1978. He said he doesn't know why a full-blown master plan was never developed. The only plans on the shelf at Bush Field are from 1995, when the aviation commission spent $163,000 on a terminal area study that has proven to be an inadequate master plan.

``I guess the airport directors only asked for the plans they felt they needed,'' Mr. Skinner said.

Former Airport Director Hamp Manning apparently only needed the 1974 airport layout plan to help him run the day-to-day operations of what was then Bush Field, Mr. Skinner said.

Steve Atha, who served as airport director in the late '80s and early '90s, only needed a terminal area study, Mr. Skinner said.

That terminal area study, produced by The LPA Group Inc. of Columbia for $163,000, focuses only on the terminal itself and states as much in the opening pages: ``This planning study ... does not analyze the airfield and its related facilities.''

Perhaps a master plan was never needed because everyone on the aviation commission knew the airport was bordered by railroad tracks, a river, wetlands and the city's wastewater treatment facility, Mr. Skinner said.

``I guess we (the aviation commission) didn't have the vision we should've had. But I don't see how it would've changed anything. You can't move railroad tracks and you certainly can't move a river,'' he said. ``We've always been limited in what we can do.''

It wasn't until December 1997 that Al McDill, Augusta's third airport director in more than 30 years, brought up the need for a master plan and a noise study for the airport.

At a Dec. 4, 1997, meeting of the Augusta Aviation Commission, Mr. McDill told the airport board a formal master plan did not exist for Bush Field and he expressed concern about the airport never having undertaken a noise study.

Although Mr. McDill and The LPA Group began to develop several studies that needed to be included in the airport's master plan, no official action was taken, no money was spent and no master plan was ever produced.

``We've never really looked at the entire airport grounds,'' interim Airport Director Tim Weegar has said.

Without a master plan, new members of the aviation commission wonder how the commission and the airport director determined the best place for Garret Aviation's expansion or the fuel tanks, where to put the fire department, the control tower or any other structure at Bush Field.

Mr. Skinner said those decisions were left to the airport director or made by the committee using the 1974 airport layout plan.

``Without a master plan, you miss a lot of things,'' said Marcie Wilhelmi, who, since joining the aviation commission in 1999, has been quick to criticize Mr. Skinner and point out what she sees as the commission's prior gaffes.

``I think just working on a master plan, the consultants would've also called home the industry changes. We've missed entire, big, trends, major shifts in aviation.... It's apparent that we were not prepared for a lot of things we should be.''

Had a master plan been developed earlier, the aviation commission would not have had to stall plans to build a new terminal at the airport. A master plan, Aviation Commission member Ernie Smith said, will tell you where everything needs to go and how best to grow your airport.

``That is one of the reasons we don't have discretionary funds,'' Mr. Smith said.

The FAA provides federal funds for airport improvement projects through entitlement and discretionary funds. Entitlement money is based on enplanements, an industry term for the number of people using an airport. To qualify an airport needs an approved airport layout plan, which Augusta has, and a five-year capital improvement program, which Augusta also has.

Discretionary funds are just that: They are based on an airport's needs. Getting that money depends on an airport's application, the size and scope of the project and, often, on an airport's master plan.

``It's not about casting blame or what we could have or should have done,'' Mr. Smith said. ``The important thing is that we recognize the problems that have been made. Let's fix them and move forward.''

By next month, Black & Veatch Corp. will have completed a scope of services and recommendations for developing Augusta Regional Airport's first master plan.

The aviation commission is expected to endorse Black & Veatch's recommendations and spend up to $500,000 developing the master plan.

Augusta Mayor Bob Young said he was surprised to learn a master plan did not exist for Augusta's only commercial airport, especially after the airport board cited such a plan during discussions about the proposal to construct wetlands near the airport.

Mr. Skinner and other airport officials said they were referring to the airport's 1974 layout plan, not a master plan, during those discussions.

Reach Justin Martin at (706) 823-3552.

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