March, 2009

Dear Stonebridge Neighbors,

You may or may not be aware that the City of Ann Arbor is in the
process of attempting to lengthen the primary runway at Ann Arbor
Municipal Airport by 800 feet – ultimately bringing airplanes 950-feet
closer to Lohr Road and our homes in Stonebridge on takeoff.

While the Ann Arbor City Council and airport officials argue that
lengthening the runway is only for safety reasons, the reality is that
the Ann Arbor airport is already very safe, with only five incidents
of landing mishaps in 600,000 landings in the last eight years – which
experts say is a very good record for an airport that does a
substantial amount of flight training.

What cannot be disputed is that the longer runway would allow more,
larger, heavier jets and charter planes carrying more fuel to utilize
the Ann Arbor airport, including business jets and commuter carriers,
adding to the noise levels around us – and this changes the deal that
we bargained for when we moved to Stonebridge and other areas around
the airport.

For example, the airport's new western boundary fence would now run up
to Lohr Road the full length of the current agricultural field, with
the expanded runway ending just 700 yards from Lohr. Worse, aircraft
taking off to the northeast on Runway 6 would utilize a run-up apron
even closer to Lohr, dramatically raising the noise exposure to homes
along Lohr and in other nearby communities.

And while Ann Arbor city officials have steadfastly said the status
and category of the airport will not change with the lengthened
runway, once the concrete is poured there's no way to guarantee that
will be and stay the case, potentially making things even worse.

What this means for all of us in Stonebridge and all of our

neighboring communities – upwind of the primary Ann Arbor runway – is
more and louder airplanes, which could seriously jeopardize both our
neighborhood and our quality of life. All this while a perfectly good,
large airport already exists in our community just five miles away at
Willow Run!

This letter is intended to encourage you to examine the real facts and
not simply accept the city's "safety" story -- and to be proactive in
your disapproval. This is important because it is easy for Ann Arbor
to blindly favor a larger city-owned airport, for the city will suffer
few of its consequences.

First, the lion's share of the money (80 percent, or $240,000) for
environmental studies and preliminary engineering would come from the
federal government, and $60,000 of that has already been issued.
Another $52,500, or 17.5 percent, of the preparatory funds would come
from the state, of which $13,125 toward the environmental impact study
has already been awarded. Ann Arbor itself would contribute only
$7,500 for the preliminary engineering and $1,875 toward the
environmental impact study, or 2.5 percent – less than $10,000!
Federal and state taxes – our federal and state tax dollars -- would
pay for virtually all of any actual runway construction.
Worse, most effects of all this will fall on people who live not in,
but around Ann Arbor -- people like us and the rest of Pittsfield
Township, which surrounds the airport, although Ann Arbor residents on
the airport's primary approach would face plenty of new upsets, too.
We will suffer increased traffic, increased noise, and perhaps untold
community catastrophe in the event of an airplane accident.

A few additional critical facts:

* Contrary to the city's claim that the larger runway will enhance
safety, the existing runway is five times longer than 85 percent of
the aircraft at the field require, which is also sufficient for the
remaining 15 percent of the planes based there.
* Contrary to the city's claim that the current runways require
steep descents, the Visual Approach Slope Indicator (VASI) on Runway
24 and Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI) on Runway 6 provide 3
degree descents, which are the norms all over the world and have
nothing to do with runway length.
* While the city claims the airport's "classification" would not
change, in reality classification may not impact the type of aircraft
that will utilize the airport as much as runway length and aircraft
performance combined with environmental condition. Thus, a longer
runway means heavier aircraft regardless of airport classification.

Those of us surrounding the airport need to appeal to Pittsfield

officials to object now, because of how this will impact our homes and
our community – and object loudly. Because, according to David Baker,
program manager of MDOT-AERO, which administers the state and Federal
Aviation Administration grants that will go to Ann Arbor Airport for
preparatory studies and the actual runway extension itself if it is
ultimately approved, the only public hearings that will be held
regarding the airport will be the ones before the Ann Arbor City
Council. And once the Ann Arbor City Council makes its decision to
proceed, the federal grants are pretty-much automatic. In addition, we
must convince our state and legislative officials, who regulate
MDOT-AERO, as well as U.S. congressional and senatorial officials, who
ultimately provide and dispense FAA funds, that this is not the best
use of our federal and state tax dollars in these tough economic
times, so that they might intervene, or take extraordinary action.
Beyond that, there's no appeal – save for going to court – beyond the
Ann Arbor City Hall, where we and Pittsfield have only the voice of
neighbors!

So we must act and act now and strongly.

Attached to this letter, you will find the names and addresses of
those appropriate officials, as well as the beginning of a draft
letter to help get you started, which you might wish to send or – even
better -- alter in your own words to voice your objections to this
project.

We are planning a follow-up meeting March 25 at 7:30 p.m. at the

Pittsfield Charter Township offices on Michigan Avenue and would
encourage you to attend.

If you'd like to be added to an e-mail contact roster for

correspondence on this issue, please notify:
communitypreservation09@yahoo.com.

The Community Preservation Association

Sample letter

Dear ___________:

I am writing to express my strenuous objections to spending

substantial federal and state taxpayer dollars to extend the primary
runway at Ann Arbor Municipal Airport and urge you to intervene during
these critical economic times to stop this wasteful project.

While the City of Ann Arbor has argued that the proposed 800-foot
runway extension would provide safety benefits, a closer examination
of the record shows that the current 3,500-foot runway has had only
five incidents in almost 600,000 landings during the last eight years,
a record experts consider quite good for an airport with as
significant a number of student pilots as Ann Arbor has. In reality,
the extended runway is an invitation to more, larger and heavier
aircraft – including more jets and charters coming to Ann Arbor –
posing substantial noise and safety risks to my neighboring community,
which surrounds the airport, as well as residents of Ann Arbor along
the airport's primary flight path.

The proposed change would bring planes dangerously low and much closer
to our homes, place the airport's boundary fences directly across from
homes on the west end of the field, and raise the noise exposure to
our homes substantially.

As a resident of that surrounding community, a constituent of yours,

and one of the taxpayers who would be paying for this airport
extension, I strongly object to this use of my tax dollars. It is
especially troublesome that these dollars could be granted to the City
of Ann Arbor by only the vote of Ann Arbor elected officials, when
most Ann Arbor residents will incur none of the consequential results
of this decision and pay almost none of the cost of the airport
preparatory studies and construction, 97.5 percent of which is funded
by federal and state tax dollars. This is a poor use of taxpayer
monies when a superb airfield alternative already exists – constructed
with federal and state taxpayer dollars -- just five miles away at
Willow Run for these larger aircraft, which makes any extension of the
Ann Arbor field both unnecessary and wasteful. For that reason, I urge
you to intervene and help steer these tax dollars to better use.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Your signature

Our elected officials:

Pittsfield Charter Township Board of Trustees:

6201 Michigan Avenue

Ann Arbor, MI 48108

734-822-3135
supervisor@pittsfieldtwp.org

Mandy Grewal, Supervisor

Alan Israel, Clerk

Patricia Scribner, Treasurer

Stephanie D. Hunt, Trustee

Gerald Krone, Trustee

Annette Ferguson, Trustee

Michael Yi, Trustee

City of Ann Arbor City Council

P.O. Box 8647

Ann Arbor, MI 48107

Mayor John Hieftje (jhieftje@a2gov.org) – 734-794-6161

Sabra Briere (sbriere@a2gov.org) – 734-995-3518

Sandi Smith (ssmith@a2gov.org) – 734-302-3011

Stephen Rapundalo (srapundalo@a2gov.org) – 734-476-0648

Tony Derezinski (tderezinski@a2gov.org) – 734-995-2686

Leigh Gregen (lgregen@a2gov.org) – 734-975-0840

Christopher Taylor (ctaylor@a2gov.org) – 734-604-8770

Marcia Higgins (mhiggins@a2gov.org) – 734-662-0487

Margie Teall (mteall@a2gov.org) – 734-213-5811

Carsten Hohnke (chohnke@a2gov.org) – 734-369-4464

Mike Anglin (manglin@a2gov.org) – 734-741-9786

Washtenaw County:

Kristin Judge

Washtenaw County Commissioner,

District 7

734-476-6092

judgek@ewashtenaw.org

State of Michigan:
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm

Romney Building

P.O. Box 30013

Lansing, MI 48909

517-373-3400 / 335-7858

Kirk Steudle, Director

Michigan Department of Transportation

State Transportation Building

425 West Ottawa Street

P.O. Box 30050

Lansing, MI 48909 517-373-2090

Rob Abent

Director, Michigan Department of Transportation

Aeronautics Division

2700 Port Lansing Road

Lansing, MI 48909-2160

517-335-9560

Senator Randy Richardville

Michigan State Senate

P.O. Box 30036

Lansing, MI 48909

517-373-0927

senrichardville@senate.michigan.gov

Representative Kathy Angerer

Michigan House of Representatives

District 55

SO989 House Office Building

P.O. Box 30014

Lansing, MI 48909-7514
517-373-1792

kathyangerer@house.mi.gov

U.S. Government:

Honorable Carl Levin

269 Russell Office Building

United States Senate

Washington, D.C. 20510-2202

202-274-6221

Honorable Debbie Stabenow

133 Hart Senate Office Building

United States Senate

Washington, D.C. 20510

202-224-4822

senator@stabenow.senate.gov

Honorable Congressman John Dingell

Michigan 15th Congressional District

2328 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

202-225-4071

Plus:

Letters, The Ann Arbor News

PO Box 1147

Ann Arbor, MI 48106

Email: letters@annarbornews.com