The Threat to
Our Community: Regularly Scheduled Service at PDK Airport
If you do not feel threatened, you should and here's why.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has decided that
more runways would provide a quick fix to the current air
traffic delay problem. The new administration in Washington,
D.C., and Congress are reviewing policies and legislation
seeking ways to "streamline" the process of
building new runways. The National Air Transportation
Association has published a list of the 100 Most Needed
Airports, which includes DeKalb-Peachtree Airport (PDK). (Aviation Group Places PDK Airport on
Its 100 Most Needed List)
What does the community around PDK have to fear? The
introduction of regularly scheduled passenger and/or cargo
service at PDK from the spillover of congested traffic at
Hartsfield. Flightserv.com, a PDK tenant, says on its
website, "Scheduled corporate jets offer the traveling
public a new way to travel without encountering the hassle of
large airports and the associated long delays, herds of
people, and limited service."
Awareness of the incremental changes over the past several
decades at PDK substantiates the fear of regularly scheduled
service. The history
of PDK reveals the evolution of our airport from a small,
largely recreational propeller plane airport to what is now a
larger, busier, and noisier airport used increasingly by
jets.
In response to citizens' requests the DeKalb County Board
of Commissioners (BOC) attempted in 1996, 1997, and 1999 to
get an ordinance
in place that would keep PDK as a general aviation airport,
not a commercial airport with regularly scheduled passenger
and/or cargo service. The past Chief Executive Officer of the
County, Liane Levetan, and her County Attorney, Jonathan
Weintraub, with the active support of Airport Directors and
the FAA aggressively fought the proposed ordinance and
presented a substitute ordinance that encouraged undesirable
growth.
CEO Levetan and her staff gave every appearance of trying
to use land being purchased with noise abatement buyout funds
for airport expansion and in particular of supporting the
activity of one individual whose actions are directed toward
expansion at PDK.
Here is a summary of this individual's attempts. In March
1996, C. Beverly Lance proposed a development in the 38-acre
Runway Protection Zone (RPZ) across Clairmont Road from the
airport. Mr. Lance wanted to develop this County-owned land
as a for-profit sports activity center. His plan for this
development was shown on a drawing prepared by the LPA Group,
which was under contract to PDK. It was presented to the
Airport Advisory Board without a request for endorsement. The
airport director spoke in support of this development at a
community meeting. The City Manager of Chamblee, on behalf of
the Community Development Director and a councilwoman, wrote
a letter of endorsement for Mr. Lance even though this
project was not in Chamblee. Mr. Lance informed citizens that
it was just a matter of time before someone developed this
land. The community was in strong opposition to this
proposal, and it was stopped when the BOC would not vote to
give Mr. Lance permission to seek rezoning of the land
despite a plea from the County Attorney. Currently, efforts
are underway to have this land designated as greenspace to
continue buffering the community from airport noise and
providing greenspace for the community.
Mr. Lance continued his efforts to develop land on and
around PDK. It was rumored, apparently with justification,
that in 1997 he was attempting to buy residential land
outside and adjacent to the airport with the intent of
turning it into a "through the fence" operation, a
way to bring regularly scheduled service to PDK without the
approval of elected officials. This effort failed when some
residents refused to sell their property.
Aviation Properties, Inc., with Mr. Lance as executive
vice president, leased airport land in October 1996 to build
a hangar for "its corporate aviation department,"
which apparently did not exist. The following year
representing himself as "PDK Projects Manager" Mr.
Lance solicited tenants for his soon to be built facility.
PDK Properties, Inc., with Mr. Lance as an officer, leased
land in July 1997 to build a hotel. In 2000 an investigation
under the Georgia Open records Act revealed the following. No
construction had begun on the site. In a letter dated April
22,1999, Mr. Lance notified the Airport Director that he was
in compliance with the lease by stating, "DeKalb County
delivered to this firm all required permits to begin
construction on April 20, 1999." However, the county
development department confirmed that no building, heating,
plumbing, or electrical permit had been issued. This hotel
lease was finally declared in default in September 2000 after
the Airport Director was informed of these findings and
sixteen months after the default occurred.
In February 2000 a website advertised positions with a new
start up airline operating at PDK Airport. In a phone call to
Delta Staffing Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta
Air Lines and the company advertising the positions, the
caller was told that the new company was
"secretive" and a press conference would be held
soon. Within a few weeks a press release from flightserv.com
with Mr. Lance at the helm announced plans for a new
passenger service at PDK.
In a letter responding to Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney,
CEO Levetan said, "[flightserv.com] is not business
based at DeKalb Peachtree Airport." Airport Director Lee
Remmel when asked about flightserv.com and PDK Airport
claimed no knowledge of its presence at the airport even
though flightserv.com was advertising for seats on planes in
and out of PDK Airport. Subsequently, a citizen exploring the
Globe Building on Airport Road located an office with a
flightserv.com sign on the door, took pictures, and presented
them to airport staff. A review of the Globe Building lease
revealed that the Airport Director must approve subleases.
Under the Georgia Open Records Act it was discovered that
while Mr. Lance was establishing flightserv.com, he was
seeking the transfer of the Globe Building lease to his
entity Globe Corporate Center Holdings LLC. The Globe
Building was under lease to attorney Edgar A. Neely. In June
1993 Mr. Neely obtained the lease to the Globe Building
through a lease assignment without the
consent of the BOC. (In August 1993 as CEO Levetan's
appointee on the airport cost-benefit study task force, Mr. Neely
strongly recommended the study include the benefits of
bringing passenger service to PDK.) According to minutes of
the BOC business meetings in 1999, Mr. Neely was attempting
to secure the consent of the BOC to assign the lease to Globe
Corporate Center Holdings LLC when he unfortunately died in a
plane crash. The BOC gave their consent for the assignment in
October 1999 two months after Mr. Neely's death. Evidence
found through open records indicated that one year later the
lease assignment had never been completed. There is
considerable doubt that this lease is still valid.
Place all of this in the context of the FAA's national
airport strategy that indicates a doubling of airport
capacity by 2020, and there is justifiable reason for the
communities affected by noise of airport operations to feel
threatened. However, it is NOT the federal government
nor developers that decide how an airport will change; it is
our local elected officials. We need to continue our efforts
of urging our CEO and commissioners to put in place an
ordinance that prohibits regularly scheduled passenger and/or
cargo service at PDK.
Elected Officials
