Airport Advisory Board approves Master Plan
The Town of Taos’ Airport Advisory Board officially approved its analysis of the Taos Airport Master Plan Thursday (Oct. 20) after going through over 300 public comments and gathering input from Taos Pueblo.
During Thursday’s meeting, the board read into the record a 10-page recommendation that summed up concerns and comments by the public primarily focused on possible expansion and approval, environmental impacts and noise pollution.
Of the 368 public comments gathered since September, 319 were against the Taos Airport Master Plan as written, and 34 were in favor. On a separate question about whether a second environmental impact study should be done, 129 comments said yes. The public record did not make it clear how many comments said no in answer to the question.
During the public comment period, several members of the public expressed their opinions to the board for the final time.
Ex-board member Daniel Weeks, who was removed from the board last month by a vote from the town council, highlighted that “The overwhelming public feedback regarding the Airport Master Plan is about increased noise — and pollution.”
Weeks also shared a sentiment expressed by others who commented publicly. “[There are] concerns that the town has allowed the ski valley resort to take over the airport, with some [people] implicating a related long-term negative economic impact for the community if Taos becomes another Vail, Colo.,” he said.
Two other public commenters voiced concern about flight times and routes. “I’m concerned about a jet crashing into one of our houses,” a man said. “The headings that the planes are taking put them directly over the most populated area and I think it’s wrong.”
“We have planes coming in oftentimes so low that your windows are shaking,” a woman added. “All of this needs to be taken into consideration. I don’t really know why we would move forward with this kind of expansion if we haven’t even maximized the use of the airport as it stands today.”
Airport Advisory Board member April Mondragon read the official recommendation into the record and highlighted some of the general themes and questions. “Can the 2022 Taos Airport Master Plan be approved by the FAA incrementally?” the plan posited. “Could a five-year plan be approved based on current demand?”
The board reports also suggested that town “explain how the Taos Airport Master Plan is going to help the Town of Taos and Taos County [regarding] jobs, revenue, etc. What are those jobs?”
“Are space highways like public automobile highways? Are there any consequences for driving without a muffler, or an aircraft ID number?” Mondragon continued.
After reading the report into the record, Airport Advisory Board member Robbie Knight noted that “the concept in most people’s mind is expansion. Really, it’s about the tangible improvement of what’s already there. There’s not going to be some giant contract coming in.”
Town of Taos Mayor Pascual Maestas was present to help clear up some of the confusion around possible expansion. “The current draft does show expansion, but this process is to get us to a revised Master Plan that is more in line with my priorities — which is not expansion,” Maestas said.
Rather than editing out comments that did not fall under the purview of the master plan, the board chose to move forward and present their recommendation as-is, a move that Maestas supported.
“I like the idea of this getting the report as it is, because there are a lot of questions or concerns that are important,” he said. “There are a lot of questions from me also, because I’m not an aviation expert… There are some rules that we just can’t enact. I need to know what those are so I can tell the community.”
The board voted unanimously to approve their recommendation. It will now head to Armstrong Consultants, who drafted the plan for another public hearing.