Santa Clara County
’s long-term plans for South County Airport in San Martin
include a longer, wider runway and a two-story, 12,000 square foot
terminal building.
Santa Clara County’s long-term plans for South County Airport in San Martin include a longer, wider runway and a two-story, 12,000 square foot terminal building. They seem like reasonable suggestions, but definitely ones that deserve full study and lots of community input.
It sounds like county officials are fully on board with that idea.
“This is not one of those cases that will get a real short review and come back with no significant impacts,” Santa Clara County Airports Director Carl Honaker told reporter Katie Niekirk about the new 20-year master plan proposal he recently unveiled. “This will actually have some impacts we have to study.”
San Martin residents, especially, will scrutinize the full-blown Environmental Impact Report for this project, and will, no doubt, pay close attention to the noise impacts and proposed mitigations.
The proposed runway improvements – increasing the length from 3,100 to 5,000 feet, and widening it from 75 to 100 feet – would allow medium-size corporate jets to take off and land at South County Airport.
Some have touted the potential economic boon of that change.
“If people in Gilroy, Morgan Hill and San Martin want to attract new business, especially high-tech, an airport is a valuable thing,” County Supervisor Don Gage said. “A lot of businesses that have planes … want to be able to fly in and enjoy close proximity to their business. So from an economic standpoint, having the airport is a very positive thing.”
While we believe Gage is right in theory, given the current sorry state of the Silicon Valley economy, we’re not convinced that in practice, a longer, wider runway will mean more businesses in South County anytime soon.
But improvements to South County Airport might draw businesses to Coyote Valley and will ease the crunch at Reid Hillview Airport in San Jose and Palo Alto Airport, as San Martin Neighborhood Alliance President Sylvia Hamilton was quick to point out.
“This is not a local demand that’s creating this,” Hamilton said. “This is a North County demand.”
However, the county’s job is look at issues, including airports, from a county perspective.
That means it’s critical for South County residents to stay informed about the plans and involved in process of evaluating airport proposals every step of the way.
While we understand that South County must bear its fair share of the burden, we sympathize with worries that we often get the short end of the stick in the big picture. A look at the unfair distribution of public transportation to this area demonstrates that clearly.
South Valley residents must make sure the details of this proposal pass muster. We’d hate to see, for example, an approval of this airport expansion, followed shortly by a decision to close troubled Reid-Hillview Airport.
We urge civic leaders in Morgan Hill and Gilroy, civic groups, residents, and Gage to keep a close eye on this proposal as it makes its way through the environmental and legislative channels.
We can give conceptual approval to the long-term airport improvement plans, but the devil’s in the details. For the sake of South Valley’s quality of life, we must make sure the details are done right.
