Amanda Wilson ("UNC, Town Lay Plans for Williams Tract" April 24) paints a pretty picture of the Horace Williams campus of 2050, but there is one "roaring" omission: What about the airport?
The Ayers Saint Gross plan is virtually silent on the use of that long strip of tarmac that runs across the southern margin of the planned community. However, the airport is pivotal in the University's plan to attract corporate funding for development.
But at what cost?
Guidelines offered by the Federal Aviation Administration) based on National Transportation Safety Board statistics recommend that land use within a mile on either side of a runway the length of one at Horace Williams (extended without notice a few years ago to accommodate jets) be extremely limited because of air crash risks; and in no case should planning include such "special uses" as schools, churches, playing fields, etc. And yet such use is exactly what the Ayers Saint Gross plan calls for.
A closer look at the plan has residences, recreation areas, even a tot lot not far from the west end of the runway.
Wilson's bucolic picture left out the round-the-clock comings and goings of propeller planes and jets immediately overhead.
Many at the University and in the town who are not neighbors of the airport do not realize that the official "medical use" of the airport is but a very small part of the air traffic there. Corporate and UNC-system "University business" traffic bring a considerable amount of traffic including jets, particularly around important meetings and sporting events.
To an even greater extent, members of the private Chapel Hill Flying Club use it for their own personal purposes and for their flying school, which they advertise in Triangle newspapers regularly. The two recent crashes in which flight instructors were involved -- one near a major intersection, the other not far from a school -- illustrate clearly the risks associated with having an airport in the vicinity, risks that range from property damage to human loss.
It's astounding that plans for the Horace Williams tract not only ignore the fact that they put everyone living and working there in demonstrably hazardous proximity to the airport but also call for an inevitable increase in air traffic by corporate partners.
