Cost overruns mount for Latimer's stalled Westchester airport master plan

In 2020, Westchester County Executive George Latimer delivered on a campaign promise to reopen the county’s airport master plan with a $1.2 million study, bolstered by broad public participation.

Latimer, who had railed against his predecessor Rob Astorino’s airport policies, pledged to have the study sent to the county Board of Legislators in 2021.

Four years later, the projected cost of Latimer’s supplement to the master plan has ballooned 53% to $1.9 million. The New Jersey-based consulting firm hired by the county, Merchant Aviation, has yet to issue an interim report. And Latimer has called a halt to further progress on the study until undisclosed “litigation” matters are wrapped up.

Latimer’s spokesperson, Catherine Cioffi, issued a terse response to questions about the stalled plan for the future of the airport, located in Harrison, North Castle and Rye Brook.

”The airport master plan is currently on hold due to ongoing litigation, and we are firm in our commitment to ensuring that nothing interferes with the final outcome,” she said.

Cioffi did not answer emailed questions regarding the study's spiraling costs. The county has authorized $2 million for the project, following three amendments that followed initial contracts for $1.2 million. Merchant Aviation's contract still has $460,000 left to spend, according to county records. Funding comes from airport revenues.

At Merchant, the man who answered the phone hung up after I identified myself as a journalist working on a column about the Westchester airport master plan.

The over-budget master plan study is stalled as the county addresses a raft of issues at the airport.

They include:

• A proposal to add 170 seats to the terminal’s cramped waiting area, more than doubling the chairs available for departing passengers.

• Negotiations with airlines this year on a new Terminal Use Agreement, which since the 1980s has limited commercial airlines to 240 passengers either departing or arriving at HPN every half-hour.

• A land swap of county airport land on Purchase Street to Westchester Joint Water Works for a $138 million water filtration plant mandated by state and federal environmental agencies.

• Expansion plans by Million Air, NetJets, and the future of public charters flying from fixed-based operators, the companies that lease county facilities to service corporate and private aircraft.

Peter Schlactus, of Rye Brook, a member of both the county’s Airport Advisory Board and the Coalition to Prevent Airport Expansion, said airport critics welcomed the Latimer administration’s outreach efforts for the master plan supplement.

“We understand that COVID and lawsuits involving the airport have appeared to delay the process," he said. "We are anxiously awaiting this opportunity to correct the dangerous deficiencies in the existing document designed by the previous administration, behind closed doors, with aviation industry input only.”

When Astorino’s plan was unveiled in 2017, there was widespread opposition to the document, which featured a $462 million capital program, with two new parking garages, renovation or construction of three corporate hangars, and development of a new building for U.S. Customs.

Critics noted that the Astorino plan's projections of future airport traffic did not take into consideration the passenger cap that’s been in place since the 1980s.

With the most recent five-year extension of the passenger cap set to expire on Dec. 31, activists like Schlactus are worried.

He’s concerned that 170 new seats in the waiting area may impact the upcoming negotiations because the passenger cap passed muster in federal court, based on the capacity of the new terminal, which opened in early 1990s.

He wants confirmation that adding the new seats won’t be used as a cudgel by the airlines to challenge the passenger cap.

“We think more seats is a great thing, but we want assurance that the expanded seating won’t undermine the regulations,” he said.

Cioffi said the added seats won’t have any impact on upcoming negotiations.

“It doesn't increase the square footage, the room size, or the number of passengers per hour," said Cioffi. "It is merely an accommodation for people who are currently standing, allowing them to sit. This action doesn't constitute expansion and does not violate the terminal use agreement.”

What's pending in court

Two cases on airport issues remain pending in U.S. District Court in White Plains.

In one case, Million Air, the fixed-base operator that opened its well-appointed private jet hangar in 2018, sued the county to overcome objections to construction of a second corporate hangar. That facility was to rise at the site of an older hangar for small private aircraft that Million Air had mothballed, in violation of its contract with Westchester County.

That case appears to be nearing completion, with Million Air agreeing to renovate the old hangar and rent space to small aircraft operators. Yet to be settled is the fate of Million Air's request for permission to build a second hangar.

A second case involves three public charter companies that operate from fixed-base operators on the south side of the airport, across from the main terminal. The county has insisted that the charters, which book passengers mostly on scheduled flights from Westchester to Florida, operate from the terminal and come under the passenger cap.

The parties await a decision from the federal judge, said County Attorney John Nonna.

Water agency filtration plant on airport land

Westchester Joint Water Works still wants to build its long-awaited water filtration plant on the county airport’s western boundary, on airport property along Purchase Street.

More: Purchase Quakers sue over environmental study for water plant by their house of worship

In 2003, New York state ordered the water agency to build a filtration plant, and in 2019, the federal government ordered it built as well.

The county has proposed swapping airport land along Purchase Street with land owned by the water agency near Million Air’s terminal, where the agency once proposed building the plant.

Environmentalists have opposed the construction, fearing run-off from the plant could pollute the nearby Kensico Reservoir. The land swap of airport land for the project is back in play, with the county Board of Legislators now reviewing the plans.

Adding to the mix is news that Purchase land baron Michael Tokarz has sold property he owned adjacent to the land the water agency wants to swap with the county's Purchase Street property.

Tokarz had fought the water agency’s plan to build next to his property. Last year, he dropped his opposition, and urged the water agency to reconsider building the plant there, away from the mansions on Purchase Street.

But Tokarz recently sold his land to Virgil Price, who lives on nearby Wolfe’s Lane. Price, who in the past has sued the county over airport issues, had his lawyer send a warning to the county that he opposed any industrial use on the property next to his newly purchased land that's zoned for housing.

With Price now threatening any change in plans, County Legislator Catherine Parker, D-Rye, says it’s time for the county to move on the land swap. Huge financial penalties could still be levied against the water agency by state and federal authorities.

“There is no other option,” said Parker. “We need to do this.”

But opponents, such as Harrison resident Richard Ruge, says the water agency remains the owner of easement through Price’s property to its land. Ruge still wants it built there, to spare the Kensico from possible contamination from run-off.

“Mr. Price bought it with the easement, you can’t deny the owner that easement access through his property,” Ruge said. “All he can do is try to be obstinate and file a lawsuit."

Sign up for Wilson's weekly newsletter for insights into his Tax Watch columns.

David McKay Wilson writes about tax issues and government accountability. Follow him on Twitter @davidmckay415 or email him at dwilson3@lohud.com.

.

.

I

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Westchester NY airport study stalled, cost overruns mount