Lincoln Journal
July 14, 2005

Commentary: A jet overhead every three minutes?

By Margaret Coppe, Kay Tiffany and Anna Winter/ Guest Commentary

Massport is proceeding with expansion plans at Hanscom Field that have grave
implications for our communities. We urge citizens to attend the Hanscom
Field Advisory Commission (HFAC) meeting at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 19,
at Concord's Town House (the Concord Town Hall) in Monument Square, to speak
out against Massport's latest expansion project. We need to send a message,
loud and clear, that runaway airport growth is not acceptable.

Massport makes no secret of its plan to build Hanscom into a mega corporate
jetport. It has been working to this end for years, adding facilities in
incremental steps that stay under the radar and avoid environmental review.
Here's what's happening at Hanscom right now:

--Massport recently announced plans to award a contract to a private
developer, Crosspoint, to build a new Fixed Base Operator (a jet service
facility), with a new access off Virginia Road, which will more than double
the size of the seldom-used MIT hangar it replaces and will result in a 50
percent increase in Hanscom's capacity to handle corporate jet traffic. This
new FBO will have 60,000 square feet of jet hangar space, 18,000 square feet
of flight support, and 13,000 square feet of passenger terminal space. (For
comparison, the existing Civil Air Terminal in the main building is only
about 5,000 square feet.) With the Crosspoint project, some 250,000 square
feet of corporate jet infrastructure will have been added to Hanscom since
2000. This is the project that will be on the July 19 HFAC agenda.

--In addition to this enormous new facility in the little used Pine Hill
area of the airport, new T-Hangars for private airplanes are also being
built there, which will also bring increased traffic to Virginia Road.

--Massport has announced plans to spend $4.5 million on improvements to the
East Ramp area, near Hartwell Avenue, also currently a little used area. In
light of Massport's known long-range plans to bring in heavy cargo
operations with an access off Hartwell Avenue, we can assume that the East
Ramp area is being built up to service a commercial cargo airline such as
Federal Express.

Jet operations at Hanscom have more than tripled since 1994, reaching an
all-time high of 33,000 last year. At this rate of increase, 13.5 percent a
year, in 10 years there would be, on average, one noisy and polluting jet
flight every three minutes.

Jet use by corporate executives and wealthy flyers is expanding in this
country. Jet aviation is a moneymaker for Massport. Our towns and one of
America's most precious historic areas, including the birthplace of the
American Revolution and Walden Pond - an area designated by the National
Trust for Historic Preservation as one of America's Most Endangered Historic
Places - should not be sacrificed for this.

(Unlike Massport's expansion of Hanscom Field, the expansion of Hanscom Air
Force Base is beneficial to the communities. The number of flights generated
by the Air Force is insignificant, and the base has always been a good
neighbor.)

It is time to demand that common sense prevail over Massport's uncontrolled,
unlimited development of this airport. We must demand accountability from
Governor Romney and other leaders of Massachusetts. We must insist that a
plan for a sustainable Hanscom Field airport be developed. Come to the
meeting on July 19 to send this message.

Margaret Coppe is the president and Kay Tiffany a past president of ShhAir
(citizens working to contain expansion at Hanscom Field). Anna Winter is the
executive director of Save Our Heritage (working to protect the birthplace
of the American Revolution, the cradle of the American environmental
movement, and the home of the American literary renaissance).

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