New Garage Proposed For Westchester Airport

The following article appear in The Journal News on January 5, 2009.

Company proposes passenger parking garage just outside Westchester airport

Elizabeth Ganga
The Journal News

NORTH CASTLE - An aircraft parts exporting company with its headquarters next to the Westchester County Airport wants to build a parking garage just outside the airport boundary for passengers who can't find a place to park at the airport.

The president of Aerotech World Trade Corp., Jan Endresen, could not be reached last week but North Castle officials who have gotten some details said he wants to build a garage for several hundred cars on New King Street just outside the northern edge of the airport in the town of North Castle. Travelers would be able to drop off their cars with valet parkers and take a shuttle the short distance to the terminal.

"They're trying to make it as efficient as possible," said North Castle Councilman Bill Weaver, the president of another airport company, Westair, which fuels, parks and stores airplanes.

Aerotech World Trade Corp. will present its plans to the North Castle Town Board, Planning Board and Conservation Board on Jan. 12.

If completed, the garage could be a boon to travelers, who struggle to find parking at the airport, but it could stir up neighbors' concerns that more parking will mean more flights and more noise. Opponents of airport expansion fought to limit the size of the 1,100-car airport garage before it opened in 1994 and to contain the size of the terminal.

"I think that whoever came up with that plan is stepping into a lot of doo doo there," said Leonard Altizio, a founder of the Westchester Aviation Association who lives in West Harrison, of Aerotech's plans.

Neighboring towns and homeowners associations will pressure Aerotech and the town of North Castle to scuttle the proposal, he said. More parking wouldn't be a good thing, he said, and could upset the balance between commercial and private aircraft.

Another tool used to limit the airport's size is an agreement between Westchester County, which owns the airport, and the commercial airlines to cap commercial flights to four every 30 minutes with a total of 240 passengers. But with AirTran and Jet Blue flying to Florida from Westchester, the airport has become more popular with vacationers, who stay longer and tie up parking.

The number of passengers has grown significantly since 2006. The estimated number of commercial airline passengers for 2008 was 1.8 million, up from 1.6 million in 2007 and about 1 million in 2006. The county created a several-hundred-space emergency overflow lot but for the last few years has focused on getting travelers to leave their cars at home. It began an advertising campaign, started a bus service from White Plains and created a cell-phone lot for people picking up passengers.

"When they built the original parking structure, it didn't even meet the needs of the terminal capacity agreement," said Deputy County Executive Larry Schwartz, referring to the limits on commercial flights. A new garage will not increase the number of flights, he said.

Despite the problems, the county has no plans to build more parking, he said.

"We've been relatively successful in educating the traveling public in leaving their cars at home," Schwartz said.

It's not clear whether a garage will draw more people to the airport or simply cause passengers to drive rather than getting dropped off. The impact on traffic is also not clear since there may be fewer trips if people take their own cars instead of relying on others to drive them, resulting in two trips. But some people may stop taking public transportation and shift back to driving.

This is exactly the type of development that North Castle can use. It won't require any more school, police or fire resources, will result in hundreds of thousands more in tax dollars and will not result in one more air traveler. There is currently a severe shortage of parking space at the county airport. As a result, many people are forced to get dropped off by friends, relatives or taxis. Construction of an additional garage would increase parking capacity and town and school taxes. This is exactly the type of project that Berman should push through the planning process. The town needs the money and the traveling public needs the parking. Hopefully she will have the good sense to do so.