Mayor Justin Bibb again made an urgent public pitch to close Burke Lakefront Airport to stakeholders and community members, this time from the halls of the downtown airport itself. But some say they're still not sold on the idea.
"I believe we are a critical moment in our city's history to go all in on being a waterfront city," Bibb said at a community forum hosted by 精东影业 Wednesday.
As more than 200 community members packed into Burke鈥檚 single terminal, many commented that it was the first time they had ever been inside the airport, which primarily serves corporate and private jets.
That is the epitome of the argument to close the airport, said Scott Skinner, who leads the North Coast Waterfront Development corporation.
鈥淭here are six miles of waterfront land from Edgewater [Park] to E. 55th [Street]," Skinner said. "Burke is a third of that. The general public can鈥檛 access a third of that shoreline."
Freeing up two miles of shoreline and 450 acres for public access could make Cleveland a "world class waterfront," Bibb said. In tandem with a more than $3 billion commitment from Dan Gilbert to redevelop the Cuyahoga riverfront, Bibb's lakefront master plan has lofty goals to rebrand the city as two-waterfront destination.
"I know change is really hard in Cleveland," Bibb said. "We love the status quo. We love thinking about the yonder years, about things that were in Cleveland. But the best cities around the world from Amsterdam to Copenhagen to Milwaukee to Chicago, they made big bets."
Bibb wants to close the airport by the end of his second term in 2029. He said he is lobbying for congressional authorization to do so.
But advocates for the airport are pushing back. Ned Parks, the president of the Northeast Ohio Pilots Association, said closing the airport would be detrimental to the city and local economic impact, despite declining flight operations and an annual loss of more than $2 million.
"You can rest assured that every major event that comes to Cleveland, the Republican National Convention, major sporting events, this airport is on their site plan as an option for them," Parks said.
He said there are other businesses that utilize the airport that Cleveland Hopkins International Airport will not be able to accommodate.
"You've got well over a thousand flights a year, if not more, that come in strictly for medical transport of either organs or patients that just makes it almost impossible to bring to Hopkins or somewhere else and then ground transport over," Parks said.
Burke's unique land makeup, dredged silt from the Cuyahoga River and compacted landfill, also pose questions and concerns for future construction. Parks said the cost for environmental remediation would be between $300 to $500 million, a number Skinner called 鈥渇actually inaccurate.鈥�
"We've been studying the potential redevelopment of Burke for a very long time," Skinner said. "There are very, very few unknowns. There is no unusually high environmental costs and it can be redeveloped for low density recreational uses."
Those questions of remediation and economic impact are on the mind for those in control of city finances. Council Member Charles Slife, who heads the transportation and mobility committee, hasn't made up his mind. As a former city employee who worked on lakefront development, he said the logistics are complicated and must be weighed heavily against the cost of public subsidies and the city鈥檚 bottom line.
"It is simultaneously true that Burke is not a moneymaker for the city of Cleveland, but it is also not dragging down our general fund," Slife said at Wednesday's panel. "A reasonable question is how much would it cost to redevelop Burke and what would it generate in 鈥� direct revenues to the city of Cleveland and how long would it take for that break-even point to occur."
Slife's committee has been holding informational hearings with the administration on the potential closure. He said he wants to make sure there's ample time to collect opinions and educate the public.
Those opinions were not in short supply Wednesday evening. Hundreds were eager to hear what would happen and share their thoughts.
"The air show, the fireworks; all that would change," said Michelle Natale, who just moved back to Cleveland from Seattle. "But I also see people when I'm traveling for my job say, 'Oh, the mistake on the lake,' or 'the river's burning.' I want that reputation to go away."
But others echoed Parks' call for a "compromise."
"I think Cleveland and Ohio have a very rich aviation history," said pilot Ned Levine. "There could be a destination venue made here that's aviation related, keep one of the runways open and you would bring a lot of people here."
Burke is also the home of the annual air show. Kim Dell, the Cleveland National Air Show's executive director, said the airport's closure could be the "kiss of death." Bibb, Skinner and David Gilbert of Destination Cleveland said they were committed to working to keep the air show in the city.
