Residents near airport opposed to expansion

Eileen and Cort Ancman are looking skyward, imagining what the future will sound like once expansion of Henderson Executive Airport is complete.

They're hearing the roar of big commercial jets coming in low over their new Silverado Ranch home off Eastern Avenue. And they have a petition with the signatures of 200 other people who are hearing the same future.

Their fears took off once they learned of Clark County's plans for runway realignment and enlargement at the airport. The county bought the airport three years ago to help relieve traffic at McCarran International Airport.

The Ancmans swear that large jets will be flying in and out of the airport around the clock, once the existing runway is torn up and replaced with two larger, realigned runways.

"There's going to be lots of traffic and lots of noise," Ancman told a group of more than 100 residents at a recent Town Hall meeting in Henderson's southwest area.

Clark County Department of Aviation officials acknowledge the point about increased traffic. Last year, the Henderson airport logged 60,000 takeoffs. Officials estimate that the annual takeoffs will grow to 98,000 by 2015.

But they do not agree that the airport expansion will affect the quality of life for residents near the Henderson airport. They say the Ancmans represent only a vocal minority.

Donna Marinaccio, property manager for the master-planned Seven Hills development just east of the Henderson airport, said she has not heard any complaints about potential noise.

"I have been managing (Seven Hills) since the first week in December and I have never had a phone call about the airport," she said.

At a recent town hall meeting, however, a number of Seven Hills residents complained about the noise in early mornings as pilots revved up their planes. They also complained about prop planes flying low over their homes.

Eileen Ancman said the 200 signatures on her petition are from residents who live near or within the airport's flight path. She said all the signers fear the proposed runway upgrade will lead to noisy jets flying over their homes.

"They are extending the runway to bring in commercial jets, including the largest executive aircraft within the 30-seat range," she said.

But John Krear, who has been a safety inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration and works out of the Flight Standard District Office at McCarran, said the only planes that could land at the Henderson airport once the proposed expansion is complete are light twin-engines and single-engines and possibly some corporate jets.

That's because pilots have to calculate if they can land safely on a runway and they use the length, the width and the thickness of the runway to make those calculations.

And according to Krear, no one is going to be landing Boeing 727s or 747s in Henderson.

McCarran's longest runway is 14,505 feet long and 150 feet wide and constructed out of about 16 inches of concrete. In contrast, the proposed Henderson runway expansion calls for the longest one to be 6,500 feet and 75 feet wide. The concrete thickness is only 3 inches.

Cort Ancman claims that while the concrete may not now be thick enough to support the heavier jets, the expansion is a ploy to get residents used to larger aircraft before bringing in even bigger -- and noisier -- jets.

"We want to get the word out and if we can't stop it, we want to mitigate the effects," he said.

One of the Ancmans' concerns is that when they bought their home on Capo San Vito Avenue, there was no disclosure form concerning the airport's expansion. They fear the expansion will leave their home in the new flight pattern.

According to the county's flight plans for the new runways, however, "all air traffic is to remain clear of residential areas." Silverado, where the Ancmans live, is north and northeast of the airport, well out of any projected flight path, according to county maps.

Those who purchase homes in Seven Hills, due east of the airport, and Del Webb's Anthem development, southeast of the airport, are given disclosure forms. This is because, at times, these developments could be in the flight paths.

A rumor that airport officials made a deal with the Del Webb Corp. to ban flight paths over Anthem, the upscale development being built near Eastern Avenue, south of Lake Mead Drive, and instead fly over Silverado, is unfounded, according to airport and Del Webb officials.

"A back room deal did not take place," said Sean Patrick, public relations director for Del Webb. "We agreed to sign a navigational easement months ago and it was disclosed in our public offering last July."

The agreement simply states the use of flight zones over Anthem from the Henderson and McCarran airports will be minimal, Patrick said.

Tom Donaldson, general manager for the Henderson airport, said as part of the expansion, the county will realign the runway 14 degrees counterclockwise, away from the Seven Hills and Anthem developments.

Donaldson also denied rumors that special accommodations had been made with Del Webb to not fly over its Anthem development.

"They were comfortable with most traffic coming in and flying over the ridge southeast of the airport, just short of their development," Donaldson said. "They just wanted to make sure that we were not going to change (our flight) path. We don't anticipate anything changing."

Jacob Snow, assistant director of planning and general aviation for the county, said if the runway expansion is not done, Seven Hills residents would ultimately hear more noise from the airport.

"There are no homes within the significant noise contour," he said. "Our proposed project is to move away from Seven Hills.

"In terms of what the neighborhood can expect after this project is complete, airplanes will take off further to the south and west and they will be higher and further away."

Before the proposed expansion can become a reality, the county needs to lease from the Bureau of Land Management 100 acres south of the runway.

"We expect it to be leased to us based on the environmental assessment, which was extremely comprehensive," Snow said.

But Cheryl Ruffridge, a realty specialist for the BLM, said the environmental assessment the county had done was for the expansion of the airport in general, not specifically the proposed runway expansion.

"They (county) have applied to us for 130 more acres of public land for runway expansion and a buffer zone," Ruffridge said.

Ruffridge said a new environmental assessment must be conducted by the county's aviation department. Following that, a public hearing will be held.

The Ancmans plan to unleash more protest at this public hearing because they believe if they prevent the lease, they can stop the runway expansion. It's in the first environmental assessment that the Ancmans find ammunition for their views that the expansion will bring larger planes.

The assessment states in one part that the expansion is intended to "accommodate the range of general aviation aircraft based at McCarran ... high performance general aviation aircraft that are restricted from operating at North Las Vegas Airport because of that airport's shorter runways ... (and provide) flexibility (for Grand Canyon air tour operators) to operate larger aircraft."

The improvements to the existing runway are necessary, under FAA standards, for the Henderson airport to serve as a relief airport for McCarran.

"We want to get the smaller planes out of McCarran to free it up for commercial aircraft as well as for safety reasons," Snow said.

Bids for reconstruction are set to go out in late April, Snow said, but the county will most likely not receive a notice to proceed until August.

The FAA recently announced that the airport is expected to receive more than $3 million in grants through the FAA's Airport Improvement Program to go toward the estimated $6 million renovation project.

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