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MAC affirms reliever role of Crystal Airport

But a new MAC comp plan will examine long-term use

January 20, 2006—The Metropolitan Airports Commission has accepted an internal study's recommendation that all of its six reliever airports continue to operate for the foreseeable future.

By approving recommendations of the Reliever Airports Task Force, the MAC board rejected appeals by the City of Crystal to close Crystal Airport and convert the site to what it sees as higher and better uses.

The MAC action came despite Crystal’s extensive comments on the study's conclusions and methodology.

Crystal responds

More Information

"Recommendations Regarding the Future Operations and Development of the Reliever Airport System," MAC Reliever Airports Task Force (Jan. 10, 2006.)

Minutes of the MAC Management & Operations Committee (Jan. 10, 2006)

Response to task force report by the City of Crystal (Jan. 12, 2006)

Crystal's comprehensive plan: excerpts dealing with Crystal Airport

Sun Post: Crystal city staff questions reliever airport report (Jan. 19, 2006)

Effort to redevelop Crystal Airport takes off (Oct. 22, 2004)

"The city is disappointed that the task force recommendations point to operational fixes without offering MAC commissioners and the public a promised examination of larger policy questions," wrote city manager Ann Norris in a letter to the MAC a week in advance of the commission's vote on the issue.

Crystal contends that the central question should not be limited to the best interests of aviation but should expand to embrace the best interests of the region at large, which include economic growth and safety. More than 125,000 people live in the three suburbs that surround the airport, a population expected to rise sharply in the coming years.

The MAC study mainly addressed the role of the reliever airports in supporting general aviation in the Twin Cities. It noted that the Crystal Airport is the closest of the reliever system's six small airports to downtown Minneapolis and has the most runway capacity. City officials countered that the airport serves the narrow use of recreational aviation and that its operations are declining faster than any other airport in the MAC system.

City officials also dispute the task force's finding that the airport contributes $19 million annually to the economy of the northwest metro suburbs.

"It's our opinion they failed on a number of points, from an economic impact and cost-benefit analysis standpoint," city economic development director Patrick Peters told Sun Newspapers.

However, Peters pointed out that the MAC's acceptance of the recommendation to maintain its reliever airports still allows for the eventual conversion of the Crystal Airport site to non-aviation uses. Indeed, the MAC moved to revisit the overall cost-benefit of the reliever airports in a long-term comprehensive planning process to begin immediately.

Peters noted that MAC commissioners clearly directed staff to involve Crystal, Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center in the comprehensive plan. Each city holds land used by the airport.

MAC looks at long-term uses

MAC representative Tim Anderson acknowledged Crystal's concerns and committed to engaging cities and other stakeholders in this planning process.

"We are long overdue to have an updated comprehensive plan for Crystal Airport," he said.

Crystal's own comprehensive plan calls for the eventual closure and redevelopment of the airport to a mix of housing and employment uses. In 2004 the Bottineau Boulevard Partnership supported this vision by raising the question of the airport's possible closure and conversion.

"We see this decision by the MAC as just one point in a long process," said Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat, chair of the Bottineau Boulevard Partnership, a public-private body that advocates for transit and redevelopment in the Bottineau Boulevard Corridor. His District 1 encompasses the airport site.

Opat said that closure of the airport could take many years to accomplish. "The bureaucracy involved is enormous, stretching from the MAC to the state to the federal government and back again," he said. "I’m sure this issue won’t go away."

Since beginning operations in 1940s, the once-rural airport has been surrounded by residential development. More than 300 single-family homes lie in runway safety zones, according to city officials. In recent years the number of flights handled by the airport has steadily shrunk and its operating deficit has increased. The City of Crystal, using MAC data, found that the reliever system has more than enough capacity to absorb the air traffic at Crystal Airport.

Ongoing reconstruction of Bottineau Boulevard and planning for a bus rapid transit service in the corridor has added urgency to the effort of tapping the prime site's redevelopment potential. At more than 400 acres, the airport is by far the largest underutilized tract of land in the area, said Opat.