Aug. 12--An environmental assessment 10 years in the making at Florida Keys Marathon Airport was much ado about nothing.
Rather than insist, as it has for years, that the Middle Keys airfield's runway be moved 40 feet to the north, the Federal Aviation Administration is now willing to go along with Monroe County's preferred "do nothing" approach. FAA Airports District Office Manager Bart Vernace confirmed that in an Aug. 6 letter to Monroe County Airports Director Peter Horton.
The FAA mandated the airport study in 2003 to determine the impact of moving the runway 40 feet to the north in keeping with federal safety regulations implemented in 1991.
The regulations concern the 240-foot distance required between the centerlines of the runway and parallel taxiway at an airport that size. The distance at Marathon is 200 feet, but there's been a longstanding waiver to continue operations.
"We got a call from the FAA. They said, 'We know where you're going with this; we've reviewed the draft [assessment],' and they sent us a letter saying we've got some choices," Horton said.
Those choices were to agree to move the runway, reject the FAA's preferred alternative to move it, propose an alternative not previously presented, or to "take no action to address the purpose and need."
In exchange for allowing the airport to remain as is, the FAA is requiring the county to submit to "a modification of design standards" controlling taxiway use during takeoffs and landings of airplanes with more than a 79-foot wingspan.
Airport Manager Don DeGraw said an aircraft that size has landed once in his roughly two months on the job. "That's not going to be an onerous requirement at all," Horton added.
The county, which owns the airport, completed the study last month and sent it to the FAA for review. It was done by county consultant URS Corp., a California-based engineering and construction firm.
Plans were also in the works for a public hearing in Marathon to gather input on the controversial potential move, estimated over the years to cost anywhere from $6 million to $22 million. That won't be necessary now.
We will not require the county to circulate the [assessment] for public review or hold a public meeting. The [assessment] process would conclude with our concurrence with the county's choice of no action," Vernace wrote.
Local officials have long argued moving the runway is unnecessary and that it would be difficult to obtain permits for it because it would require cutting out 20 percent of the rare hardwood hammock along Aviation Boulevard. That road runs parallel to the airport and the hammock serves as a noise buffer for a large residential area.
Horton said the County Commission is slated to discuss Vernace's letter at its monthly meeting on Aug. 21. "I'm asking they accept the no-action alternative," he said.
The Aug. 21 meeting is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. at the Murray E. Nelson Government and Cultural Center in Key Largo.
Copyright 2013 - Florida Keys Keynoter, (Marathon, Fla.)
