Airport's fate sealed in budget

The University’s plans to close Horace Williams Airport have hit some turbulence within the N.C. General Assembly.

The House and Senate budgets differ on the issue, directing the airport along different paths.

The latest House version allows for a one-year study to decide whether the location is needed by N.C. Area Health Education Centers.

AHEC uses the UNC-owned airport to transport doctors across the state to treat patients.

The Senate’s budget proposal allows for the continued use of the airport while AHEC transfers to Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

UNC officials maintain that the transfer is necessary to achieve the University’s goal of creating Carolina North — a multiuse research facility two miles north of the main campus.

The airport lies in the heart of the area planned for development and is the flattest area of the 963-acre Horace Williams tract.

But closing the airport could lengthen travel time for doctors by 15 or 20 minutes, experts say.

The debate concerning the airport’s future now resides within the budget discussion of the joint conference committee.

During the next few weeks, the committee will decide whether to keep the airport or close it to construct the new campus.

Rep. Bill Faison, D-Orange, said maintaining the airport is necessary for patients.

“I think the airport is a very important part of Chapel Hill,” he said. “I think that the people who are wishing to close it are significantly misguided.”

House Majority Leader Joe Hackney, D-Orange, said it is crucial to keep AHEC functioning.

“The most important thing is the maintained viability of AHEC,” Hackney said. “It needs to be assured.”

The current campus does not fill all of the University’s needs, said Tony Waldrop, vice chancellor for research and economic development.

“Researchers are scattered in lease space,” he said. “We think it would be better to bring them all together in one University space.”

Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, said that there are merits to both arguments and that there should be some give and take.

“I’m not in favor of closing the airport, but I am in favor of Carolina North,” Rand said.

“It’s always a balancing situation.”

There should have been another way to resolve the issue, said Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange.

“I think Carolina North … cannot be stopped,” she said.

“My disappointment is that they found 10 sites close to Chapel Hill-Carrboro, and they didn’t use them.”

The issue should have more time to be discussed in greater detail for the General Assembly to fully understand the problem, said Rep. Bill Owens, D-Pasquotank, co-chairman of the conference committee.

“A decision that big, you should make an educated decision.”

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.