Mayor Avedisian says Warwick still concerned about runway expansion

WARWICK – Mayor Scott Avedisian on Tuesday said a draft plan favored by the Federal Aviation Administration to expand T.F. Green Airport’s main runway to the south does not present a solution for the expected loss of tax revenue, a major concern for the city.
“Nowhere is there a realization [in the document] from the state that the city needs to be compensated for all the property being bought up,” Avedisian told Providence Business News.
He said the city expects to continue negotiations on that issue and a variety of other concerns. It plans a formal response to the draft document, released last week, at a public hearing Aug. 17 at the Community College of Rhode Island’s Knight campus in Warwick.
The city last year announced opposition to what was then the FAA’s preliminary support for a $170 million plan to extend Green’s main runway with 1,534 feet of additional pavement and a 600-foot safety area. Avedisian said the city is still reviewing the draft Environmental Impact Statement that formally adopted the plan as the federal agency’s preferred alternative. The plan also includes upgrades to the airport’s crosswind runway.
Avedisian said the proposed main runway expansion is expected to cost the city $300,000 annually in lost tax revenue. He hopes to continue negotiating with the R.I. Airport Corporation on the issue, but said it is “disappointing the city still doesn’t get the kind of respect” given other communities in the state he says have been compensated for lost tax revenue.
The airport corporation “has been very willing to take into consideration our concerns,” Avedisian said. “The FAA, not so much.”
While the FAA doesn’t have a formal role in negotiations on the tax issue, there are a number of other concerns the city has over air and water quality and wetlands that Avedisian says the agency has not yet addressed.
He said he had expected a briefing on the draft report before it was released and still hopes to get one before next month’s public hearing.
FAA spokesman Jim Peters said the agency has no plans to give the mayor a briefing prior to the public hearing. He said the agency will accept public comments at the Aug. 17 hearing but “will not respond to anything” at that time.
He said a final environmental impact statement could be published later this year. After that, the agency will make a final decision on the expansion plan.