Relocation Faces Opposition From Three Organizations

The new Panama City-Bay County International Airport in Florida has faced what proponents hope will be the final legal hurdle to the start of construction. On Wednesday, airport proponents went before a three-judge federal panel in New York City to confront three organizations trying to stop construction of the new, 1,300-acre facility.

As ANN reported, the airport was approved by the FAA for a $72 million airport improvement grant last May, and got its final sign-off from the US Army Corps of Engineers in August. At that point, it was set to become the first new commercial airport built in the US in a decade.

In an odd sort of "reverse-NIMBY" battle, new homes were built too close to the old Bay County International Airport, making it impossible to build a runway extension needed to accommodate large airliners. Then, when plans were made to close and relocate the airport to the south, residents protested the resulting longer drive to catch flights. Some taxpayers also complained about the new facility's $330 million price tag.

Wednesday's arguments, however, took place between the Airport Authority and US Justice Department on the side of the airport, and The Natural Resources Defense Counsel, Defenders of Wildlife, and a pilots group called Friends of PFN against the relocation. The Panama City News Herald reports  he three groups sued to overturn the FAA’s "record of decision," claiming the decision was arbitrary, violated established procedures, and would lead to destruction of environmentally sensitive wetlands in the West Bay area.

Airport Authority attorney Michael Duncan told the paper in a phone interview after the hearing that he was in the courtroom, and after going through the entire record of decision, "we are still confident that the FAA was not arbitrary or capricious in its actions."

Duncan says this was the final hearing on the merits of the suit, but there was no word from the three appellate judges on when a decision might be expected.

FMI: www.pcairport.com, www.faa.gov