A standoff between the Warwick Mayor and TF Green Airport may finally be over. Here's why.
Warwick Mayor Frank Picozzi and Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport executives appear close to ending their standoff over construction of a new $100-million cargo terminal.
On Tuesday Rhode Island Airport Corporation CEO Iftikhar Ahmad sent a new proposed memorandum of understanding between the city and airport over the terminal to Warwick Mayor Frank Picozzi.
The memo puts in writing, as Picozzi demanded, the Airport Corporation's promise to build a sound barrier near the terminal and route all truck traffic to it through the Airport Connector.
And unlike earlier attempts at formalizing the airport's plans for the terminal, this one appears to meet Picozzi's approval, something he has made a condition of dropping his lawsuit against federal environmental approval of the terminal.
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The Tuesday memo "is a completely different document than the previous one" the Airport Corporation proposed last month, Picozzi wrote in an email. "This one has all of the elements that satisfy me (at long last). It will legally bind RIAC to keep their promises and the promises must be fulfilled before the facility will operate."
Picozzi said the city solicitor is satisfied with the new memo and will sign it once the Rhode Island Airport Corporation board of directors approves it. The RIAC board of directors is slated to take the issue up Jan. 11.
“The master planning for this project started in 2016 and has spanned three administrations," RIAC spokesman John Goodman wrote in a news release. "We have never wavered in our commitment to build a sound barrier and produce a road mitigation plan that will keep semi-tractor trailers off of local roads."
The new cargo terminal memo does not make construction of the sound barrier or terminal access road "subject to appropriations," something Picozzi objected to in a prior draft.
Picozzi appealed the Federal Aviation Administration's environmental approval of the cargo terminal this summer to get legal assurances that the airport will pay for the noise barrier and route all trucks to the Airport Connector instead of local streets.
The new cargo terminal is planned for an area of parking lots south of the main passenger terminal near Strawberry Field Road and will replace the facility on Airport Road now used by UPS and FedEx.
Warwick City Council President Stephen McAllister said the council could vote to authorize Picozzi to sign the memo at a meeting Jan. 17.
"My two top priorities are in there (no trucks on local roads and the sound barrier) and the language seems straight forward," McAllister wrote Tuesday. "I think this is a great step forward in getting this issue resolved while still protecting the residents of Warwick."
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Warwick, airport near agreement to end TF Green cargo terminal court fight
