Airport terminal appealed

The fate of the new terminal at Del Norte County Airport is now in the hands of the California Coastal Commission.

Two commissioners and Eileen Cooper, representing the Friends of Del Norte, have separately appealed the county Planning Commission’s approval of a coastal development permit for the new terminal.

The permit would allow the Border Coast Regional Airport Authority to use the land south of where the terminal currently sits along Dale Rupert Road.

This would mean filling in wetlands and cutting down trees east of the road, which the appellants would like to avoid.

The appeals will go before the Coastal Commission on Dec. 10 in San Francisco. Commissioners will determine whether the issues raised in the appeals need to be looked at closer.

The project approved by the Planning Commission calls for a new road going through the woods to the terminal, which would be on the current road.

“It basically comes down to whether a habitat is rare or valuable in terms of the role it plays in the ecosystem or whether it can be easily disturbed,” he said about how the Coastal Commission defines an ESHA.

Any uses in an ESHA must be “resource dependent,” such as restoration or a nature study, Merrill said, and that doesn’t include an airport terminal.

Airport Manager Jim Bernard said the next step is to make the case to the Coastal Commission that the area is not an ESHA or that there are no other feasible options for the new terminal.

Bernard said that avoiding damage to wetlands is a higher priority than preserving trees in the county’s Local Coastal Plan, which affected how the terminal was laid out. 

No matter where it’s built, he said, either more wetlands or trees will have to be impacted.

There are many constraints to work with, Bernard said, including the limited amount of land to build the terminal on and federal and state requirements.

About a decade ago, the Federal Aviation Administration said that the county needed to renovate the terminal, but that the current facilities weren’t worth fixing so a new one would have to be built.

There are about 50 acres of land to work with on Jack McNamara Field, Bernard said, and it would cost too much money to move the runways or taxiways to allow for more space.

“The only land available is what they just told us we can’t touch,” he said, referring to the Coastal Commission’s appeal. “We’re surrounded by pavement.”

The airport also needs more space to park the airplanes that regularly come into Crescent City, Bernard said, including commercial, air cargo and private planes.

“We consider it frivolous waste of taxpayer dollars to overbuild the terminal to such a great extent as is planned,” Cooper states in the appeal.

Bernard said that the new terminal will not only meet the airport’s current needs, but there will be room to expand later as necessary.

The size of the terminal has yet to be determined, he added. As approved by the Planning Department, it could be up to 20,800 square feet. The current terminal, built in the 1950s, is just over 2,000 square feet.

The Friends of Del Norte hired a professional planner to redesign the layout of the terminal, parking lot, aircraft apron and road and would like this design to be considered.

“The large-scale of this building will forever change the beauty and natural character of this site,” Cooper states in the appeal.

URS Corporation, which will design the terminal, will look at the Friends of Del Norte planner’s design and see if any elements can be used, Bernard said.

The appeal by Coastal Commission members Mary Shallenberger of San Francisco and Sara Wan of Malibu states that more analysis is needed to create an alternative configuration of the terminal that would have the least damage on the environment.

In order to completely avoid the trees, Merrill said that might mean more wetlands will have to impacted. He also said that most projects before the Coastal Commission are eventually approved.

“Our intention is to work with (county and airport) staff to come up with a resolution that will provide for the project, in some fashion, to go forward.”

Bernard said that his focus is also working toward a solution.

“I’m hopeful there’s a compromise,” he said. “I’m optimistic.”

Reach Kelley Atherton at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it