A2runway's Blog

UPDATE 

ANN ARBOR CITY COUNCIL REJECTS AIRPORT EXPANSION

December 2, 2024

There was good news this night!

The Ann Arbor City Council voted 8-3 AGAINST a proposal to accept MDOT grant funding to begin preliminary planning and design work on expanding the primary runway at Ann Arbor Municipal Airport.

That effectively kills — at least for now — the 17-year-old effort to expand the runway.

We give real credit to Mayor Taylor and the super majority of Council members, many of whom spoke eloquently about the importance of  being sensitive to the concerns of neighbors and Ann Arbor residents — many of whom wrote and spoke in opposition.

Thanks to YOU — for the support of all of our grass roots (CPCQ) backers, the Stonebridge Community Association, and our great partners in the Pittsfield Township government, our long-time partners in opposing the runway expansion. Collectively, we have done it!

We’ll all sleep better tonight.

Thanks and regards,

Kathe Wunderlich and Andy McGill

We, The Committee for Preserving Community Quality (CPCQ), are a grass roots group of residents living in the cities of Ann Arbor and Saline and in Pittsfield, Lodi and Scio townships. We had been concerned that should the proposal submitted by Michigan Department of  Transportation (MDOT) and the Ann Arbor Municipal Airport (ARB) to “extend the runway by 870 feet to the southwest” be accepted by Ann Arbor City Council, it would greatly impact our safety and quality of life. We worked hard to provide evidence to the City Council for why this proposal should be rejected – please take time to browse this site, read an  informational letter letter updated with facts and figures now, and see the evidence for yourselves. By signing up for regular email updates at communitypreservation09@yahoo.com, you can expect to be kept up to date on any new activities, information and developments via links to relevant news updates, media coverage and information released by the City of Ann Arbor and the Airport. Thank you…….your support has been essential and very much appreciated.

See the Facts page to read final 2023 Environmental Assessment (EA) and Finding of No Significant Enviromental Impact (FONSI) plus all the EA appendices. It is only in the appendices where critical information can be found. Here

See the Facts page for Andy McGill’s Committee for Preserving Community Quality response to the  expansion approval by MDOT and FAA. Here.

CPCQ and Pittsfield sue Ann Arbor and MDOT to stop airport expansion. See Facts page.

The actual lawsuit is HERE     It has been assigned to The Honorable F. Kay Behm, Federal District Judge and The Honorable Anthony P. Patti, United States Magistrate. Judge Behm sits in the U.S. Courthouse in Flint, MI.

This complaint begins with about 10 pages of detailed legalese on the court’s jurisdiction, the parties to the suit, and the statutes in question. But after that,  it contains a very detailed account of critical elements of the case since the airport expansion was first proposed as well as our claims against the defendants, and the remedies that we seek from the court. But it is not light reading.

Committee for Preserving Community Quality welcomes the marketing Stonebridge Advisory Committee. Please see their website stopa2airport.com.