When President Bowles and the trustees hired me, they told me that, more than anything, they valued my analytical skills. Well, I’ve spent a good part of my first months in this job studying and analyzing our plans for Carolina North.
It’s been really important for me to do that because Carolina North has such great potential to shape the University’s future.
I think we’re in a good position now with the Town. We’re working together productively, and we plan to reach agreement on the zoning issues by June 30, 2009.
One of the most vexing issues, though, has been the future of Horace Williams Airport. As you know, it occupies the heart of the Carolina North acreage. It’s the flattest part of the tract and, therefore, the best place to build Carolina North. So we have to close it.
Now, I realize it doesn’t take a lot of analysis to figure out that closing the airport is important for the future of Carolina North. But figuring out HOW to close the airport . . . that’s another story.
Ultimately, I think it comes down to this. The AHEC program is an extremely important asset to this University and to our state. Our doctors, nurses, other health professionals, and our MedAir pilots are as committed public servants as you will find. The work they do and the service they provide are fundamental to who we are as a university. And we are telling them that we have to close their airport to build Carolina North.
I have analyzed all the options, and I’m convinced that we really do have to close the airport to make Carolina North all that it must be. I’m equally convinced that we should fully support the airport authority authorized by the General Assembly as the best way to pursue creation of an airport in Orange County. It gives the county zoning authority, and it turns over the siting and development to a public body with greater expertise than we have.
For AHEC and MedAir, I think a move to RDU for the short-term is workable. But for the long-term, we owe it to our doctors to appoint the airport authority to see if there’s a better alternative.
We have said all along that we wouldn’t close Horace Williams Airport until we had to. With today’s challenging economic climate, we anticipate that funding for initial Carolina North construction likely will be delayed. Our state appropriation for planning and infrastructure for the Law School relocation to Carolina North is frozen, at least for now. And Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., our partner for the Innovation Center, has put new projects on hold, although they have affirmed their interest in our project.
I look at all of this with a ‘glass half-full’ perspective. It allows us to appoint the airport authority and launch that important work. And it gives me a chance to get involved in the Carolina North planning. I am really looking forward to the opportunity to engage our faculty in updating the vision for Carolina North.
Then, when the funding picture improves, we will be prepared to move forward with a focused vision for Carolina North that meets the needs of the University, the Town of Chapel Hill and the State of North Carolina.
20 Comments
Holden, a few quick points.
One, the economic justification for siting a new airport in Orange County are not supportable at this point in time. The Talbert/Bright 2008 draft economic report is, frankly, a joke. It is embarrassing that a great institution like UNC maintains that this report’s projections are credible. Reality is a necessary component to this process.
Two, the Authority cannot be staffed exclusively with folks that have “better expertise” in airport development. Local residents deserve not only a seat at the table but enough of a presence to sway the decision-making process. In the end, a balanced approach, pulling talented individuals with informed opinions across the spectrum, will better serve the interests of both the University and the State’s citizenry.
Third, Talbert-Bright has said twice now that AHEC’s future is at RDU. While I support AHEC’s mission and am completely open-minded on improving their ability to serve our State’s needs, continuing to use AHEC as a justification for creating a new general aviation facility doesn’t wash.
Finally, here’s a link to a chronology of UNC positions on HWA’s growth and usage.
http://townhall.townofchapelhill.org/Agendas/ca040414/10-Response%20to%20Petiton%20re%20Horace%20Williams%20Airport.htm
It’s an interesting course that UNC has charted over the years.
Thank you for posting your thoughts on HWA (and entertaining commentary). I look forward to seeing the evolution of your and the University’s thinking on this issue.
One of the great advantages UNC-Chapel Hill has over other Universities is having a centralized campus. Interaction between students in a myriad of disciplines is possible.
The papers have been reporting estimates of $2 million to relocate the airport to RDU, vs $25-50 million to relocate to a new site in Orange County. It is shameful that UNC is asking taxpayers pay the increased amount, esp in this economy. And why is the convenience of UNC doctors (and local airplane owners) more important than the convenience of people in rural Orange County, whose homes and livelihood will be disrupted?
The airport should be permanently relocated to RDU both for economic reasons and for reasons of local social justice.
Private jets are becoming quite the symbol of excess wealth and elitism especially in these times of economic challenge.
The University in its eagerness to replace Horace Williams with an airport in rural Orange County would do well to consider the possible extent of adverse publicity arising from the image created by wealthy patrons/Big Rams jetting in and out of the formerly idyllic countryside despoiled by a jetport built for the purposes of growing the Unversity’s endowment by $4 billion.
Alternatively, the University could become the game-changing advocate for construction of the rapid transit route from UNC/UNC Hospital to RDU which exists on planners’ drawing board and awaits the impetus for funding and construction that UNC could provide.
Hey, Buz – Great idea!
I recommend getting some news cameras out to HWA the morning of the next big football/basketball game.
I’m quite certain we’d see a fistful of red-faced fatcats caught in the act of abusing their various corporate percs.
We know there are concerns about the prospect of a new airport and the accompanying process. Some of these are expressed in the comments above.
Carolina is a place of free exchange of ideas and open discussion, so we post comments of all points of view.
As has been reported in the media, we received today a letter from the Orange County Board of Commissioners. We appreciate their thoughtful analysis and will respond to the questions and initiate a dialogue in the coming weeks.
Holden
Bravo Will R! Having local residents be represented equally and officially in this process is a wonderful idea. Also, if it was such that local residents were equally involved in the decision making process to expand the UNC campus, this would probably be a much, much different debate. Mr Thorpe, if this was the case, I can say with a great deal of certainty that the good people of Orange County would not want to stop you from doing what you please with your property. I am a proud resident of the White Cross community that has many families that have been in this beautiful place for generations and I can most definitely tell you that we would not try to take your land from you.
You say you owe it to the doctors to see if a better alternative exists. What better alternative is there than to continue to use RDU, save millions and millions of dollars and continue to preserve the beautiful and peaceful rural communities of Orange County.
As an alumnus and a frequent contributor to the University, I can only say this. I will not be party to underwriting the destruction of rural Orange county. No more contributions from me for UNC until this foolishness is put aside, and my votes will be cast against any politician who votes to continue this nonsense. UNC is a great university, it hardly needs an airport to stay great.
I found the following comment on the OrangeChat blog of the N&O. It think it’s apropos in light of the current discussion.
“According to WRAL, in the last 25 years eighteen deaths have been reported as a direct result of crashes connected to Horace Williams. (http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/128811/)
One such crash, reported by The New York Times, happened just off Homestead Road and resulted in the deaths of seven people, including two young children. (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E05E1D8133BF93AA35751C0A...)
Pilots who use HWA have always touted the statistic that no one on the ground, at least in North Carolina, has ever been killed as a result of a plane crash. But, now that the area around the airport has been developed so extensively (including five public schools w/i one mile of the runway), one might easily believe that it’s only a matter of time until something unimaginable happens.
Regardless of the future of Carolina North (and the eventual possibililty of a new airport in a rural part of Orange County), the University should take steps to move its AHEC operations to RDU as quickly as possible for the safety of Chapel Hill’s citizens.”
“Public body?” How is an airport authority that is dominated by a 2/3 majority of University and state legislature appointees and only 1/3 represented by the primary elected representatives of the citizens and residents of Orange Co. and its associated municipalities a “public body?” I have done a lot of research into other county airport authorities and although all were authorized by the state legislature, there seems to be absolutely no precedent for the authority composition as defined by S1925. In every case that I have found, local county commissioners in conjunction with major municipal town or city councils were granted total authority to appoint 100% of the members of the airport authority. Today (Dec. 17, 2008) the Chapel Hill News finally revealed the source of the wording of the airport authority of S1925 – UNC itself was granted practically a blank slate to write its own stacked bill. The university and the NCGA should be ashamed and the citizens of Orange Co. should be outraged.
For the last 16 years I have lived, according to Yahoo Maps, 1.97 miles from the Horace Williams Airport. Never once have I sat in my house on a quiet Sunday afternoon and said, “Darn, here comes another plane!” In fact, before the controversy over moving the airport started, I never even thought about the airport. Occasionally I now notice a small plane going overhead but it is nothing like the boom of the jets doing a fly-over before a football game. I can, in fact, sit on my porch and hear the football announcer more clearly than the occasional plane. What I have not seen enough in comments on the airport is what these planes are used for on the most part; transporting AHEC trainers and important medical personnel. I suggest a survey of homeowners within a two-mile radius of the current airport be taken and made public. Then we can see how much “destructive nonsense” will be going on.
To clarify the number of fatalities associated with Horace Williams Airport since 1981, some of my staff checked the records of airplane crashes available through the Federal Aviation Administration for those years. Those records indicate that since 1981, crashes directly associated with the University’s Horace Williams Airport have resulted
in 12 fatalities. That number is based on two 1981 incidents, one 1989 case, and one 1993 crash.
Holden
12 fatalities or 18, that’s still too many, especially with all the new development on the ground.
I think it’s still incumbent on the University to get rid of the airport and move AHEC’s facility to RDU as quickly as possible – regardless of other alternatives that may arise in the future.
Re comment above: “What these planes are used for on the most part” is not AHEC, which represents – at most – 25% of the flights. Most air traffic is private pilots taking advantage of the University’s airport. In fact, some of those AHEC flights aren’t even carrying AHEC personnel. Meanwhile, many of those “trainers and important medical personnel” use cars or vans, not planes.
Living almost 2 miles from the airport, even if on the direct flight paths, can’t possibly give you the real sense of what it’s like to living within walking distance of the airport, as many people do. It’s that far from the airport to Franklin St. – a far piece! Since the Flying Club was evicted and curfews enforced, the airport has been a better neighbor. But until you’ve had a pre-game afternoon of flights arriving every few minutes and a post-game morning of flights leaving every few minutes, you don’t really know what proximity to an airport really means — never mind seeing a plane down in a playing field behind your house.
Of course, inconvenience, annoyance, or even hazard to neighbors is never the final reason for doing anything about the airport, even if it should be. It’s about money and the best use of the land. With the economy in its current current crisis, a new airport makes no financial sense. Even continuing to support the old one is questionable.
Let’s face it. The simple fact is, the longer the University postpones construction of a new hangar at RDU, the more it loses any credibility it might have with the local community.
I live closer to Horace Williams (less than a mile) than probably anyone else posting. It NEVER bothers me. Not during the week or on game days. Never even notice the place. All the bruhaha about danger and death…you’re thousands of times more likely to get killed by a transit bus or auto accident than by an airplane, but I don’t see critics demanding the buses be shutdown or roads turned over to pedestrians and bikes only. Too much hysterics and hyperbole from the opponents. Most of the opposition is simply “I don’t use it, therefore I don’t want it and don’t want ‘fatcats’ to have use of it either.”
pd84, the contributor above, misses the point. The fact that the airport never bothers him/her doesn’t mean that it’s harmless. With five public schools within a mile radius of the runway (as well as thousands of residences), the University is simply tempting fate by keeping HWA up and running.
Why not close it now and move to RDU like they said they were going to do? Let’s just hope it isn’t because they’re waiting for another one to be built – or even worse, hoping to keep the airport right where it is and construct Carolina North around it?
That’s what AOPA is trying to get them to do, if you read between the lines of their recent press release. http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/region/2008/081222nc2.html
pd’84, I lived 2/10ths of a mile from HWA for nearly 7 years and a little more than a 1/2 mile (as the plane flies) from it for more than 10.
I do notice traffic, including planes approaching from the north turning west into the flight lanes since, at night, their lights often shine into our windows. Game day and corporate jets aren’t that infrequent. Most mornings you can hear AHEC’s planes crank up – moreso in years past. I didn’t mind their noisy takeoffs over the years as I appreciated the mission they performed on our behalf.
As Jose notes, the infill around HWA has been quite dramatic these last two decades. Beyond schools, there is the increasingly congested MLK, Jr. corridor, Ironwoods, UNC’s own planned Carolina North and Airport Rd. facilities, student parking, etc.
Carolina North cannot be built around HWA so, as those plans progress, by necessity the plan to move HWA’s services most progress. I agree with T&B’s 2005 assessment that RDU is the best place to move AHEC’s program because of Carolina North, because of the decades of infill and because it seems to be the most cost effective way to meet UNC’s needs.
Recall when MLK was simply desolate little airport road and there was almost nothing on this side of town. I’m pretty sure that all the folks who chose to build/buy/develop around the airport were aware of its existence before they decided to locate in proximity to it. I never cease to be amazed at the people who plop down next to an airport (saw it in Savannah and also Peachtree DeKalb in Atlanta) and then suddenly want to complain about air traffic. I drove directly beneath a departing aircraft yesterday morning on MLK. If not for his lights on at the time, I never would have even known. I definitely would not have seen it in the dark. The only thing I notice of the airport is the beacon. As stated before, more people in this town have died from bus accidents than airplanes…where’s the outcry to stop them? Weaver Dairy road doesn’t even have full length sidewalks, where the kids walk against traffic everyday. I would think that situation should be more concern (certainly is more risky to our school children) than the astronomical odds of an airplane dropping onto one of the surrounding developments. And for the naysayers, you apparently are unaware that the west departure corridors out of RDU with commercial jets often goes directly over the top of Chapel Hill/Carrboro. Based on your logic, should we not also demand to shut down RDU next? I mean, a commercial jet coming down on a subdivision or school here would be far more catastrophic than a light twin engine Univ. aircraft.
Chancellor Thorp:
I just read the AOPA press release link above and learned that the group had a meeting about the airport with various UNC officials on December 10. Could you please provide us with some of the details of that meeting and who attended? I think it’s important the community be kept aware of what’s happening with HWA.
Thank you.
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