Concerned Citizens of the North Metro (CCNM) and Zero Expansion of Eden Prairie have begun a collective effort to oppose the 6,000-foot Minor II airport runways redesignation in law proposed by local aviation transportation planners. (In current law, runways at minor airports cannot exceed 5,000 feet. [MS473.641 Subd. 4].)
  
There has been strong community opposition to expansion at the reliever airports, such as the Anoka County/Blaine Airport and Flying Cloud Airport, going back to the 1970s. But there has never been a comprehensive statewide plan that considered and carried out the utilization and promotion of small airports and regional airports around the state.
 
Thus our groups' adage: "If there is such strong opposition to something, you need to propose an alternative."

The economic impact used for justifying expansion at reliever airports is just a relocation of current businesses to other suburban areas — it's just "robbing Peter to pay Paul."  It is another faulty premise that one state/city needs to be pitted against the other to "capture" economic growth when all growth benefits the collective body regardless of where it is located within the same state or region.

An underdeveloped regional airline network
Studies by the University of Minnesota and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have identified an underdeveloped regional airline network in Minnesota that has led to capacity issues at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP). The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) recommended that other regional airports be developed so they could absorb additional demand for air service.

We believe there should be a statewide aviation planning group/committee/agency that plans for growth in the state's northwest area, its southern area and the area to the northeast. This is the only way capacity issues at MSP can be addressed in the future. This means: Northwest (St. Cloud), south (Rochester) and the northeast (Duluth). All of these "areas" could be considered to be the state's regional intermediate airports (with the length of runways 5,001 feet long or longer; St. Cloud has a 7,000-foot runway). There is no need to have another intermediate airport or airports in the metro's seven-county area. 
 
Currently the very small Twin City Metro Area under MAC's jurisdiction has one major airport, one intermediate airport and five minor airports.  The metro area is saturated with options for aviation use.  All of these six "reliever" airports are located within a radius of just about 10- to 15-miles from the Twin Cities' MSP major airport hub.
 
Just how saturated should the metro airspace be?  Aviation and transportation planners have concentrated only in the metro area, which consumes the lion's share of the available aviation dollars. A good indicator of the problem is that 80 percent of the St. Cloud area's commercial passengers drive to MSP because the local regional airport is not as well equipped and does not offer enough flights.

If, as the Metropolitan Council and the Legislature say, they are planning for a statewide transportation plan to include a wide variety of multimodal travel options and a boost to economic development for "outstate" cities/towns, then upgrading these other intermediate airports (St. Cloud, Rochester, Duluth) should benefit outstate growth.
 
Aviation planning should be a statewide discussion.

Vicki Price is a member of ZeroExpansion of Eden Prairie. Barbara Haake, Mounds View, is a member of Concerned Citizens of the North Metro (CCNM) and is a member of Anoka County-Blaine Advisory Commission.