Harford County residents raise concerns over future zoning changes at airport
CHURCHVILLE -- Residents in Harford County rallied at a community meeting Wednesday evening calling on local officials to prevent any future zoning changes to the airport.
The Harford County Airport has been part of the landscape for more than 80 years.
Over the last decade or so, the airport manager, Kevin Hess, said it's gone through a facelift.
This includes new aircraft hangars plus the lengthening and widening of a single runway that's still in use, according to Hess.
The 'Residents Against Airport Growth' formed after a proposal for community input was made late last year to further stretch the takeoff and landing strip.
"There was airplanes here when a lot of us moved here but we're against the commercialization at the airport and it getting bigger," resident Adam Berg said.
"We're a small rural farming community. We'd like to stay that way," resident Tom Fry said.
Hess said the proposal to lengthen the runway would have been to add an additional layer of safety, however, after community pushback, the plan was scrapped.
The airport manager adds that it does still have the ability to build four additional hangars if needed.
"We have lots of concerns: the safety of it, the environmental impacts, the quality of life," Berg said.
"We would like to see the county step up to the plate and say look, we need to do a hearing assessment, a noise abatement, environmental study, impact study, hazard analysis," Fry said.
During the community meeting Wednesday at Hopewell United Methodist Church, the group shared a petition that in part calls on Harford County government to stop any future zoning changes to the airport.
"We're just trying to get our voice heard," Berg said.
On Thursday afternoon, a Harford County spokesperson confirmed to WJZ there are no current requests with the county's Planning and Zoning Department to expand the runway.
