Experts pick three sites for a proposed Maricopa airport

Maricopans will hear Thursday that one of three sites deemed suitable by experts for a future local airport is the same one city officials attempted to take over in the summer of 2006.

A city-sponsored open house is set for 5:30 p.m. on Thursday at the offices of Global Water Resources, where the city’s aviation consultant, Ed Beauvais, and Coffman & Associates, the firm which conducted the airport feasibility study, will discuss details in the 35-page report. Global Water is located at 22590 N. Powers Parkway (See “Airport Feasibility Study Open House”).

The City Council will later review the report for possible action (See related information at the following links: Item 1, Item 2).

The site – operated on state land and known as the Estrella Sailport – is six miles west of the city on State Route 238 and Rio Bravo Road.

The city’s interest in Estrella Sailport was tied to its plans – at the time – to purchase a parcel of land known as the Peed property for the site of a permanent city complex. After protests mounted against the Peed site, and its cost to taxpayers, the city’s plans for a nearby airport changed.

The other two sites considered acceptable for development as airports are tracts of land to the south of Maricopa. One (listed as site 10 in the report) is bounded on the north by Louis Johnson Road, on the east by White and Parker Road, on the south by Golden Hills Road, and on the west by Smith Road.

The other, site 11 in the report, is a Nissan test facility one mile east of Site 10. It is bounded on the north by the Ak-Chin Indian Community, on the east by Stanfield Road, on the south by Barnes Road, and on the west by White and Parker Road. It is about nine miles from the city’s center.

Both sites 10 and 11 are owned privately.

Fourteen potential sites were identified in the report, but 11 were considered unsuitable for a combination of reasons, ranging from proximity to housing, environmental issues, distances from utilities, and other factors.

The report did not mention Phoenix Regional Airport, located about half way between Maricopa and Casa Grande, which was once considered the city’s first choice for an airport. The facility went into receivership, however, and was sold to the Ak-Chin community before a bankruptcy hearing.

The footprint of the proposed municipal airport is 650 acres, according to the study, and it could be almost entirely contained on land currently being leased by the operators of Estrella Sailport from the state.