Town Meeting Rejects Airport Approach Map

CHATHAM – By the time a 92-year-old resident drew robust applause when he called for closing Chatham Airport, it was clear that town meeting voters would not back adoption of a new approach zone map for the George Ryder Road airfield.

Moments later, the article, which would have replaced an outdated 1958 map with one that reflects the current federally-approved approach zone, was overwhelmingly rejected by a vote of 158 in favor, 306 against.

It was one of the more dramatic moments in Monday’s annual town meeting, which also saw residents reject electric vehicle charging stations at the airport as well as two major capital funding measures (see separate story, page 3).

Rejection of the new approach zone map came after numerous speakers conflated its adoption with allowing expanded removal of trees and increased commercial use of the airport, none of which relate to the map, according to airport officials.

“We have been misled by omission,” Harriet Prout said, questioning the impact tree trimming will have on the environment around the airport and the aquifer beneath it.

Failure to adopt the new map will not change how aircraft take off and land at the airport; that is governed by the Federal Aviation Administration, which recognizes the updated approach zone map, said airport commission chair Huntley Harrison. Replacing the 1958 map referenced in the town’s general bylaws is a technicality, he added, explaining that the new map reflects the approach sanctioned by the FAA for more than 40 years, he said.

“Nothing at the airport is changing,” he said. “Planes will continue to operate as they have been.”

The town is charged by the federal agency with ensuring that the approach zone is free of obstructions, said select board member Michael Schell.

“The map is a change in where those obstructions can possibly be a problem,” he said. “Our job is to keep the airport approach zone areas free of obstructions.”

Trimming trees that have grown up into the approach zone over the past two decades is required by the FAA, and will be done selectively both on and off airport property, airport officials say. But critics have charged that thousands of trees will be cut down and that the effort is a veiled attempt to expand the airport, including encouraging use by large turbo jets and commercial services.

While some trees need to be trimmed for safety, former airport commissioner Susan Wilcox claimed that more than 60 acres would be involved with the goal of allowing landings in all weather to “make the airport more commercial.”

The airport’s vegetation removal plan is currently before the conservation commission, which has jurisdiction over a nearby vernal pool and areas around several ponds, and has also been referred to the Cape Cod Commission, which has yet to schedule a hearing on the matter.

Approval of the map “opens doors for future increases in aircraft operations,” said Juris Ukstins. James Fulton warned that properties in the expanded approach zone could lose value. “You may be voting to devalue your own property,” he said.

Pilot Rene Haas said critics have gained traction by relating the cutting of trees to industrialization and clear-cutting, ignoring “the reality” that trimming trees is vital for airport maintenance. The airport isn’t the only entity that is required to control vegetation growth, he said.

“We trim trees around power lines on a routine basis to provide citizens with a safe and reliable power grid,” he said. “It is the trees and not the airport that is expanding.”

The explanation for the article printed in the warrant was “extremely wrong, misleading and disingenuous,” charged Michael Tompsett. The new map will pave the way for allowing poor visibility landings that will be more dangerous to both pilots and people on the ground, he said.

The airport’s master plan update allows a straight-in, instrument-guided approach during poor weather to replace the current approach, which calls for aircraft to circle until the runway is visible. Airport officials say this is a more dangerous flight path that requires planes to fly over a much greater area than the straight-in approach. Tompsett, however, said the straight-in approach would allow aircraft to fly in at lower altitudes, as little as 30 feet above some homes on Great Hill.

David Oppenheim, a pilot for 45 years, said the same way technology has changed the way we drive cars, airplane technology has also changed in the decades since the original approach map was adopted.

“The reality is the world has changed,” he said. “We’re making progress, and we have to do everything we can to make the airport safer.”

Airport commission attorney Mina Makarious said the approach map is “entirely a geometric exercise.”

“The town has neither the ability nor purpose to exercise it under this article to set where planes fly or where they land,” he said. “Nothing you do tonight changes what is in the sky.”

In that case, why was the article even before voters, asked a North Chatham resident. He said the select board did not seem interested in hearing from the public but was simply rubber-stamping the airport commission’s plans.

“Anything would be better than the foolish nonsense to cater to people with jet planes and small craft, whatever, just to make Chatham accessible to a few pilots,” said the 92-year-old resident, who did not give his name. He called adoption of the new approach map a “foolhardy attempt to make the airport safer…for what? There’s no reason.”

Harrison said he did not know what, if any, reaction the rejection of the map would elicit from the FAA or Massachusetts Aeronautics Division.

Earlier in the meeting, voters rejected $440,700 in upfront funding for five electric vehicle charging stations at the airport. The appropriation is required to qualify for $325,150 in rebates and incentives, including funding from the federal Inflation Reduction Act, that would reduce the town’s cost to $115,550, said Harrison.

Currently, the town has no public EV charging stations. Four are slated to be installed at the newly rebuilt Eldredge Garage parking area on Main Street, and those at the airport would serve residents, airport users and others in the West Chatham area, he said.

Ukstins said EV charging stations should be centralized downtown, where they are likely to get more use, and not be located in the “boondocks of the airport.”

Alison Kaar disagreed, saying the airport parking area is much less busy than downtown and thus chargers there would be more accessible. Having them available would serve both residents and visitors, and help fight climate change, she said.

“We all have a stake in climate change,” Kaar said. “These charging stations are, in my opinion, a terrific idea.”

Energy and Climate Action Committee chair Robert Wirtshafter said the rebates and incentives are available now but would be lost if the town doesn’t front the money. He also echoed Kaar’s comments, saying the airport is a good location for the chargers.

“We’re going to need a lot of them,” he said of the anticipated increase in the number of electric vehicles on the road. “If you think tourists are going to come to a town where they can’t have charging, then you don’t own an electric vehicle, like I do.”

Others questioned who would get the revenue from the chargers and whether it would be up to the town to maintain them.

In the end, the general anti-airport sentiment at the meeting won over, and voters rejected the funding 177 in favor to 348 against.

======================

State Grant Will Fund Adult Day Program

CHATHAM – The town has received a state grant to fund an adult supportive day program at the center for active living on Stony Hill Road.

Officials had planned to ask voters to appropriate the $273,682 startup cost of the program at Monday’s town meeting, but the grant award eliminated the need to act on the funding article. The select board was expected to accept the grant at its meeting Tuesday evening.

Currently, 10 Chatham residents attend the Rock Harbor Respite Program sponsored by the Orleans Council On Aging. The new initiative will allow those folks to attend a similar program in Chatham.

The grant will cover the cost of hiring a full-time program manager to oversee operations, as well as two part-time assistants and a part-time bus driver. The money will also cover health and safety improvements that need to be made at the 193 Stony Hill Rd. facility.

The grant to launch the program was awarded through the Massachusetts Office of Elder Affairs Supportive and Social Day Program Expansion Grant Program.