Airport Advisory Board (AAB) Policy Proposals for DeKalb Peachtree Airport (PDK)

To best understand this PDK Airport Advisory Board (AAB) document and the controversy associated with it, some historical perspective is necessary. In August 2004, when the DeKalb County Commissioners approved conducting a study to develop a new PDK Master Plan that would guide the development and operations of PDK Airport for the next decade or more, they wisely mandated extensive citizen participation throughout the entire process.

As part of that process, professional Master Plan consultants were hired. After interviewing more than one hundred individuals representing a wide range of perspectives, and after doing additional research costing altogether more than $80,000, the Consultants in April 2005 provided their 6-page Airport Vision and Policy Document to the PDK Airport Advisory Board for its consideration.

Instead of discussing the policies proposed by the Consultants, however, the chair of the AAB, Richard Ossoff, substituted his own set of policy recommendations for discussion by the AAB. NONE of the Master Plan Consultant policy recommendations were EVER discussed directly at ANY of the three meetings of the AAB in April, May, and June 2005, despite several requests from the public for such discussion. In addition, only one of nine policy proposals recommended directly by the concerned public who attended the meetings were allowed any discussion by the AAB. View the complete list of AAB and citizen proposals from June 2005

The final policy document that the AAB approved in June 2005 and sent to the Board of Commissioners for their consideration, made slight modifications in some of the wording originally suggested by Mr. Ossoff and combined two of the eight original provisions into one but did not incorporate ANY of the other policy proposals that had been recommended by EITHER the PDK Master Plan Consultants OR by the concerned public!

For a more detailed account of the way that the discussion of public input was restricted in the three AAB meetings in April, May, and June 2005, click here.

The seven policy proposals that the AAB eventually approved in June 2005, might appear unobjectionable at a superficial reading. Who could disagree, for example, with a provision calling upon PDK Airport to be "highly sensitive to environmental and quality of life issues," or mandating that it operate in a "financially self sufficient manner" (as it is required to do, in any case), or saying that it should operate "in compliance with applicable federal and state public law" (is anyone expecting PDK to violate such laws?)

The biggest problem with such vague "feel-good" policies, however, is not what they say, but what they do NOT say. These policies--with the sole exception of the first provision against allowing "scheduled passenger or cargo services"--are just vague boiler plate that lack any indication of specific guidance or limitations regarding what PDK Airport can or cannot do in the future.

The Commissioners will need to be very conscientious in asking themselves whether or not the seven AAB policy proposals are sufficient to guide the development of this Master Plan study--projected to cost nearly $1 million of taxpayer money--and of PDK Airport itself for the next decade or more until another Master Plan will be conducted.

Keep in mind that PDK Airport already contains more than 800 acres (larger than New York's La Guardia) and that it is also the second busiest airport in the state of Georgia after Hartsfield-Jackson, in terms of number of annual flights. Remember, as well, that the 1998 Cost-Benefit Study, conducted under the auspices of the County, reported that PDK Airport significantly impacts 80,000 residents, mostly negatively, living in its already densely-settled vicinity.

DeKalb County is the owner and operator of PDK Airport. The County thus has a responsibility to see that the airport is operated in a responsible and effective manner. Do vague statements supporting environmental sensitivity and the like provide sufficient guidance and controls over the development of such a large and important airport? Or do such vague guidelines merely amount to giving PDK Airport a "blank check" to develop in whatever way it may want to in the future, without any clear guidance or controls?

Is it likely that the fullest and best set of policies that will necessary to most effectively guide a busy and important airport such as PDK could come primarily from one single individual, however knowledgeable he might be, or that nothing else of value would need to be incorporated into those policy proposals from either the Professional Master Plan consultants or from the concerned public?

Do we risk achieving less-than-perfect results when such policy recommendations come largely from a single individual--an individual who admitted that he had drafted them "hurriedly" and who also tightly controlled the discussion of those provisions during the three AAB meetings over which he presided in April, May, and June 2005?

For these and for other reasons, concerned citizens have proposed four key additional policy proposals that they feel must be incorporated into any PDK Airport policies if they are to effectively guide and limit the development of this major airport, which is surrounded by an already densely settled urban area.

It is our sincere hope that the DeKalb Board of Commissioners will do their "due diligence" in this matter and will consider very carefully, indeed, their responsibility to the public to determine the policies that may be needed to guide and run effectively such a large airport as PDK Airport is and will remain.