Northern Hills Homeowner's Association

Kelly to get 18000 flights by 2017

Sep 13, 2000

Express-News: Business

KellyUSA likely to share runway
By Bill Day
Express-News Business Writer

KellyUSA, the business park that hopes to replace the closing Kelly AFB, got some good news Tuesday after enduring an election defeat in May and a budget shortfall this summer.

Use of the runway by KellyUSA's tenants, considered crucial to the fledgling business park's success, will likely be approved by the Air Force early next month.

After Kelly AFB formally closes in July 2001, its runway will be transferred to adjacent Lackland AFB. But to attract cargo operations and aircraft maintenance operations, KellyUSA applied for "joint use" of the runway.

Access to the 11,500-foot runway ?— long enough to land any plane in the world ?— is what sets Kelly apart from other business parks.

"It's part of our multimodal distribution complex: rail, air and trucks," said George Swanson, Kelly's facilities and operations project manager. "Joint use of the runway is critical to having the air portion of that."

Joint use, however, is not yet a certainty. After the application, a voluminous environmental impact statement was prepared, and public hearings were conducted to gauge area residents' thoughts about increased air traffic. Should KellyUSA develop its cargo and air maintenance businesses as planned, the number of civilian flights would jump from around 100 in 2002 to 14,200 by 2007. Flights could jump to 18,756 by 2017. Around half of the flights would be at night.

The final decision on joint use will be made by the deputy undersecretary of the Air Force. But officials here are drafting a document called a record of decision that will present options for joint use, joint use with conditions and no joint use.

"We expect joint use will be allowed," said Charles Williams, an environmental management specialist with the Air Force at Kelly. "From the joint use document, it appears that objections are not substantial enough to disallow joint use."

The final version of the environmental impact statement offers possible conditions the Air Force could ask KellyUSA to take to curb nighttime noise. These include lower daytime airfield fees, restrictions on nighttime use by tenants and limits on taxiing and revving of engines after 10 p.m.

Whether any of those conditions is attached to joint use is up to the Air Force. For now, Kelly officials are thrilled that joint use seems imminent.

"Joint use is on schedule, and it's been that way from the beginning," Swanson said. "Projects of that complexity usually somehow fall behind schedule. This one did not."

KellyUSA wants to have 21,000 civilian jobs in place by 2006 to replace the 16,000 civilian contract jobs that were there when the base closing was announced in 1995. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Pratt & Whitney have already set up operations along the runway.

In recent months, KellyUSA has suffered budget woes. A sales tax initiative that would have provided $50 million over 10 years was soundly defeated by voters in May. The following month, Executive Director Paul Roberson warned that the business park could not bring in enough initial revenue to support itself. Kelly officials asked the city to help fund the project, but Kelly was left out of early city budget drafts.

Kelly officials are now hoping the city will kick in $1 million for the demolition of decrepit buildings and $150,000 for road improvements. The city budget is scheduled to be finalized Thursday.

wday@express-news.net