|
Old City News
ST. GEORGE — The topic has been like a pesky gnat, buzzing around the ears of southern Utah officials.
There has been talk of a "Western theme park." Universal Studios. A cultural center/museum/
training center.
However, beneath it all is discussion of an airport — a large airport — with international strength runways and the potential to bring commercial and industrial development to the area around it.
Bzzzzzzzz.
At the least, scuttlebutt about the project by the nonprofit Heritage Institute has tweaked the attention of St. George city transportation staff at a time St. George is in the middle of locating, planning and designing a new municipal airport.
Within so much rumor there is a sturdy reality: St. George needs a new airport.
And a variety of proposals from Heritage Institute partners have been fodder for the southern Utah rumor mill. They have also detracted attention from St. George's efforts to build its own bigger, better airport — something vital to the growth and prosperity of the area.
Transportation and city folks in St. George and Cedar City seem to want to swat the gnat and make it go away.
"It's hard to answer as to whether it's credible or not, because who knows," said Rep. Bill Hickman, R-St. George.
"It's credible if they build it, it's not if they don't. We don't want to get in their way, but we do have to be cautious and we do have to watch because what (Heritage) does in (Nevada's) Clark County or Iron County could have some impact on what we are trying to do here."
First the airport was suggested near St. George, over the Arizona border. Now a largely unidentified group of partners has said it wants to build "Heritage International Airport" near Summit, just outside Cedar City in Iron County.
So few details have been made available by the St. George-based Heritage Institute, which posed the plan, that the project remains a developer's pipe dream in the eyes of most officials.
But with the proposal just out of reach in its amorphous "details-pending" state, the questions remain:
Can the Heritage group possibly pull off a project the size it proposes? Does Heritage really have $100 million in funding it says it has secured? And what would a new international-sized airport mean to the smaller, municipal airports in Cedar City and St. George?
"It has been interesting only from the aspect of being incredible," said Scott Hirschi, director of the Washington County Economic Development Council. "It's an odd little side note, if that."
"I don't know what to make of it," Cedar City resident Dawn Kelso says. "People are sure talking about it, but everybody's kind of wondering how many airports we need."
Months ago, St. George resident Don Steed was part of a group to propose the city build a new airport directly south of the city in an area known as Black Rock. Steed was part of a group of developers from southern Utah, California and Mesquite, Nev., to propose the project.
At the time, the city was in the early stages of selecting a new site for a municipal airport, and initially accepted 15 potential sites — including the one at Black Rock — from in and outside of Washington County.
All but three were dismissed for various reasons.
City officials said the site proposed by Steed and his colleagues was unsafe. It had insurmountable environmental problems, said City Works Director Larry Bullock, and was close to an 8,000-foot mountain that creates visibility problems. They rejected the site on those grounds.
Other city and county officials say privately a group of developers was behind the St. George airport plan.
"They've definitely been very vocal about their opinions," Bullock said.
Almost immediately, Iron County officials started hearing the buzz about the Cedar City-area airport.
It came about the time rumors started about a huge Heritage project.
There were private meetings, scrutiny from the local media.
Many of the rumors were wrong, according to David Cooper of Cooper & Vochelli, a Los Angeles-based public relations firm that speaks for Heritage.
Heritage Institute has applied to the Federal Aviation Administration for airspace. The application contains a few details but no specifics.
There is also talk about a large "cultural center" in Southern Utah. Again, partners in the development will give no details.
There is talk of an education/training center/
museum. What kind of education? What kind of training center? Again, first the partners, and recently Cooper, have refused to give details.
A press release issued in May gave few hints, only a denial of the rumors and facts as stated in Salt Lake and Washington County newspapers.
The "concept (of a theme park) for Southern Utah is as far removed from the reality of what these individuals have in mind as historic Cove Fort is from the World Trade Center," according to the statement.
In this press release, Cooper said the name of the project will be the Western Renaissance Cultural, Educational and Training Center and will be "the most environmentally sensitive project ever devised for this region."
A major portion of the earnings from the museum or other elements that ultimately become part of the project would go to the College of Arts, Letters and Humanities at Southern Utah University in Cedar City and to other worthwhile activities in communities in southern Utah.
Cooper also reiterated earlier company statements that Universal Studios and Universal Theme Parks have no connection to the project.
In a recent interview, Cooper provided no more information, but said answers would be forthcoming by mid-July.
"We want to make sure we have as many things nailed down as possible before we progress with the project."
Documents obtained from the Federal Aviation Administration through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act show:
Heritage International Airport anticipates two 12,000-foot runways near the Summit exit on I-15 and north of the existing Cedar City Airport.
The airport would have 1 million to 2 million visitors per year, possibly more over the next five to 10 years.
In past interviews, he has refused to comment about a document circulated among public officials that suggested a $100 million funding source had been secured for the project and about land acquisition in the area.
St. George city officials reaffirmed their need for a new airport.
The runway is constrained on top of a plateau near the city. So as St. George has exploded during the past several years, passenger travel has been limited. Two-thirds of possible air travelers have to go elsewhere, Bullock said.
About 10 flights a day go in and out of St. George.
A large airport would boost passenger travel.
The city will get back an environmental assessment report of three sites in early July. City officials probably will choose one of three sites soon after that.
A city transportation committee has recommended "Site 1," located on the old Civil Aeronautics Administration landing strip — now used as a drag strip — seven miles southeast of downtown St. George.
Plans are moving forward with the local project, Bullock said.
But many officials are still waiting for the Heritage details.
"As far as I'm concerned, it's rumor and innuendo," said Iron County Attorney Scott Burns. His home, it seems, is the place of big dreams for some developers.
"We were going to have Winter Disneyland at Brian Head one time. There's always a gazillionaire talking about developing one thing or another. The townspeople are pretty savvy to these kinds of things."
|
|
|