Oct. 4—Consultants tasked with determining the "highest and best use" for Hartford-Brainard Airport have come up with a compromise — keep the airport open but close one runway for an alternate use, according to a lawmaker familiar with the consultant's draft report.
Commissioned by the state, New York-based BFJ Planning has been pondering the airport's future since earlier this year, studying the property and its potential uses and hosting a series of public meetings.
It came down to three options: Keep the airport open as it is, close it down completely and redevelop the 200-acre property, or the third option that was chosen in the end, keep it open but close a little-used runway.
The draft report was submitted at the end of August to the state's Department of Economic and Community Development, which will release it to the public by the end of this month, according to a spokesperson.
State Sen. John Fonfara, an advocate of closing the airport and using the land for mixed-use development, said the consultant's report fell short of finding a best use for the land that would truly benefit the city of Hartford.
"What they recommended... I'm not happy about it at all," Fonfara said. "It recommends a closure of one of the runways but not total closure, which makes no sense to me whatsoever."
"The airport is a recreational airport at best; there's virtually no commercial activity going out of there," Fonfara said. Developers have shown interest in building a major mixed-use complex on the property and would not need extensive state subsidies to break ground, he added.
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin has also spoken out to push for the airport's closure, citing the lack of city or state revenue coming from a facility located on prime land with river views and highway access.
"It cannot be that that's the highest and best use for the state of Connecticut, it cannot be the highest and best use for the capital city of the state of Connecticut," Bronin said at a July public meeting on the airport's future.
The city commissioned its own report late last year which argued for closing the airport in favor of development that would generate more jobs.
Airport advocates aren't happy with the reported BFJ recommendation either, citing the need to maintain the facility intact for future use as a potential "vertiport," or base for electric-powered vertical takeoff and landing craft. Many current prototypes of these "flying cars" have a range of about 100 miles, making Hartford a logical stopover between New York and Boston.
"The idea of taking an airport, taking little bits of it, and then thinking that it's going to be an economic benefit to the city and the state seems counter-productive," said Michael Teiger, president of the Hartford Brainard Airport Association. "We are very interested in developing aviation services that are innovative, exciting, cutting-edge and the future, and to cut little pieces of the airport makes it that much more difficult," he added.
"It's a political strategy. It's not a comprehensive economic strategy," Teiger said.
DECD is scheduled to present its analysis of the BFJ report to the legislature's Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee by Oct. 15. Fonfara said he would call for hearings on the report's findings in the State Senate's Finance, Revenue & Bonding Committee, which he chairs.
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