Local civic associations continue their opposition to the New York State Department of Transportation's (DOT) development plans for Republic Airport, which were recently released to the public in draft form.

The recommended development plan, outlined in the November 1999 Draft Master Plan Update for the East Farmingdale airport, includes runway changes and taxiway widening projects aimed at better accommodating larger business jets. It also recommends upgrading the aircraft design category of Republic, from II to III, to better accommodate the business jets, particularly the Gulfstream G-V, which have become more prevalent at the airport in recent years. And, it contains projects aimed at meeting new Federal Aviation Administration safety requirements.

Local civic leaders are opposed to the plans because they feel that if Republic is changed to a Design Category III airport, it will inevitably allow the larger 727 planes, which are also included in that group, to land. "This is a community here. There's a multitude of people around this area every day. If a plane has to crash land, where's it going to go?" said Emil Coppola, president of the Joint Council of Civic Associations of the Massapequas.

"If they're talking about going into this Category III, with bigger, 727 planes, moving the taxiways so they can accommodate these larger planes, accepting federal funds to do this construction work - once you do that the federal government is going to say, 'Hey, these planes have to land here.' You can't hold them back. Then, where do we stand?"

Although Coppola and other civic leaders are concerned that the changes will bring a flurry of new jet activity at the airport, Hugh Jones, director of the airport, maintains that the changes are aimed only at making operations safer for those aircraft already using Republic, particularly the Gulfstream business jets. He added that jet operations are not expected to increase significantly, and that 20 years from now, the primary users of the airport will still be small, single-engine and twin-engine propeller planes.

"We're forecasting that by the year 2017, there will be 195,000 operations, of which 14,000 are jet operations. That tells me that only 7 and 1/2 percent of the total activity at the airport is by jets," Jones said.

Republic Airport has been operated by the New York State Department of Transportation as a general aviation/commercial reliever airport since 1984. The master plan update is its first long range planning document, since efforts to produce a master plan in the late 1980s were stalled.

The following is a partial listing of the projects included in the recommended development plan: Obstruction removal in all approaches; easements in the Runway Protection Zone Safety Area and Object Free Area for Runway 19, including the area north of the old Conklin Street alignment and easements for the Federal Aviation Regulations Part 77 Transitional Surface on Runway 14; Shift Runway 1-19, 425 feet to the north to meet the 1,000' FAA Runway Safety Area (RSA) on Runway 1; Reposition landing threshold on Runway 19 to existing end of runway; Relocate Taxiway B to a distance of 400 feet from Runway 1-19 centerline (presently Taxiway B is only 200 feet from the runway centerline); Extend Taxiway G north of the Runway 14-32 and relocate Taxiway G south of the runway to a distance of 400 feet from the Runway 1-19 centerline. A full listing of the projects included in the development plan may be found in the draft master plan update, which is on display at the Farmingdale Public Library.

A public information meeting about the draft master plan update will take place at the airport's administration building on Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. For further information, one may call 752-7707.