[CPEO-MEF] REUSE: "Who Needs the Moffett Runways?"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Who Needs the Moffett Runways?
Lenny Siegel
September 2013

To ensure that the planned lease of Moffett Field serves the interest  
of neighboring communities and to comply with the National  
Environmental Policy Act, any proposed change in the operation of the  
runways or significant new activities on the former Navy base should  
be the subject of a new Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Should  
the selected lessee simply plan to create a museum and educational  
center in Hangar One, a less exhaustive environmental study will be  
required, because that use was part of the preferred alternative  
studied in the 2002 Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for  
the NASA Ames Development Plan.

In 1995 NASA, owner of the former Navy Moffett runways since 1994,  
and several air cargo companies proposed to open up Moffett Field to  
air package express operations, and local residents organized in  
opposition. We used public meetings about NASA'a Environmental  
Assessment to mobilize opposition and pick apart the proposal. Then,  
in a November 5, 1996 advisory vote, 67.5% of Mountain View voters  
opposed commercial or other civilian air operations at Moffett Field.  
Opposition to non-governmental use of the Moffett runways in  
Sunnyvale, directly under the Moffett flight-landing path, was also  
intense. There is no reason to believe that public opinion has  
changed since.

Largely as a result of that election, NASA abandoned plans to expand  
non-governmental air operations. Instead, it consulted with residents  
of neighboring communities and created a development plan based upon  
partnerships with high-tech companies and educational institutions.  
That plan, subject of the 2002 environmental review, has been  
successfully implemented.

But times change....

For the entire column, go to
http://www.cpeo.org/pubs/Runways.pdf

For the shorter version as it appeared in the September 20, 2013  
Mountain View Voice, see pages 10-11 of
http://www.mv-voice.com/morguepdf/2013/2013_09_20.mvv.section1.pdf


--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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