[All] Airport survey

[Louisette Lanteigne]

Hi folks

There's more to this airport than folks may think. Climate Change is seriously approaching fast. We are a main food grower, second largest food belt in Ontario but we need to bump up food distribution capacity if we are going to do our duty and feed the world.

My good friend Albert Norris has passed away years back but we shared a vision of creating a massive food distribution centre by the Airport. By bumping up food production locally we protect farmlands and water resources for the long term while generating money for the province. Why transport food to toronto to be shipped instead of sending it out from here? Our area has the capacity to be designed as a main hub for food distribution in Southwest Ontario. We MUST go there. Areas of the world are running out of food very fast. This needs to be discussed with political types all the way up the ladder. 55 Billion is what Ontario makes off of 5% of our landmass slated for food. That's everything from farm growing to food processing and distribution. Taking land away for malls and sprawl is stupid. Taking land away to make an airport that could be used to distribute food is a legacy worth doing but we need to work hard to make sure that the USE of the air
 port for food distribution is enshrined with the plans to protection Ontario's farmlands for generations to come. 

Lulu 



On Friday, February 7, 2014 5:55:53 PM, Eleanor Grant <eleanor7000 at gmail.com> wrote:
 
Hi GREN All, 
Yesterday I went to a public input session about expanding the airport.
See waterlooairport.ca/masterplan .
You can e-mail your comments from that page.
They are deciding among 4 options: status quo (room for a little growth), low growth, medium growth, and high growth.
They had info sessions which claimed that once you get up to Option 3 - medium growth capacity - both noise and the cost to taxpayers will decrease.  Which seems counterintuitive.
Noise reduction is to be accomplished by having a longer runway and locating it farther east.  In this way the jets can take off at lower power, and reach a higher altitude before flying over cities.  (There was more detail to this, that I didn't understand.)
Residents of Hespeler weren't offered any relief from those Baffin-Island-bound cargo planes with loud engines that shatter their peace early in the morning.  And it seems, to me anyway, that a more easterly runway might be noisier for Hespeler while being quieter for Kitchener.
Tax savings are expected with Option 3 by reaching the critical capacity of a million passengers per year.  Increased revenues would be enough to pay for both operating costs and the debt servicing on the additional $50 M that would have to be borrowed - according to the project team.
I brought up the question of greenhouse gas emissions, and was told it wouldn't be any worse than having all those people drive their cars to catch a plane in Toronto, "if they're going to fly anyway". 
I've also been asking around about a GO train stop at Breslau.  Apparently this was shelved as Kitchener got a stripped model of GO service.  But at the same time, building unlimited parking on green field doesn't bother anyone.  BTW, Option 3 also involves building a grade separation where Shantz Stn Rd crosses the tracks.
I'm baffled because they're preaching the right gospel on rapid transit and downtown intensification, yet the same mentality doesn't extend to other forms of transportation such as Hwy 7 and the airport.  Saving farmland drops off the radar.
Different forms of transport don't talk to one another!  Last night I went to hear Sue Zielinski at the School of Architecture, and this is just what she talks about:  A whole transportation solution instead of separate silos.
Most telling I thought, was the statement that our airport is getting only a small percentage of flights now being made by residents within our 35-km-radius catchment area, and they want to get that number up.  Even if the principles are opposite to those used to promote the LRT.
My rant.  I'd be interested in hearing what you all think.
Eleanor
_______________________________________________
All mailing list
All at gren.ca
http://mail.gren.ca/mailman/listinfo/all_gren.ca
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20140207/bd4aebc1/attachment.html>