Staff Writer

     The Rhode Island Airport Corporation is so certain that a proposal for a runway extension would not fly with the city of Warwick that it is sponsoring legislation to ground the city's vetoing power.

     Runway 16/34 at T.F. Green Airport, known as the crosswind runway, is 6,000 feet of pavement that was last rehabilitated years before the Federal Aviation Administration required a 1,000-foot "safety zone" on both ends. The runway's grandfather clause would expire once any rehabilitation on the surface began, and if RIAC is not permitted to build out where there are currently wetlands, the corporation argues, the crosswind runway’s usable length would be diminished to a mere 4,100 feet.

     RIAC Executive Director Michael Cheston said this would create more traffic on the airport's 7,100-foot primary runway, because the crosswind would be unusable by commercial jet aircraft.

     RIAC has submitted this legislation because a veto from the city is inevitable and, Cheston said, unfair.

     "The main issue we had with this particular law is that local jurisdiction can unilaterally veto a wetland permit that the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management might approve and that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the science involved," he said. "They could veto it because they don't like my haircut."

     Warwick officials were shocked by RIAC's preemptive strike. William DePasquale, principal planner for the city, said the fact that RIAC did not speak with the mayor’s office before taking matters to higher powers signals a major setback in relations between the two parties.

     "We're absolutely positively opposed to this legislation," he said. "They are prejudging a board that is elected by the City of Warwick’s residents.

     "All it's doing is driving a wedge between the host community and RIAC. They have to respect the City of Warwick for the entity that it is," he added.

     RIAC Director of Public Affairs Patti Goldstein disagreed.

     "Since this airport is a state asset, and since we were advised it would most likely not be approved by the city, we want to make sure it would always be there for more pilots to use," she said.

     DePasquale said RIAC's argument that not being able to extend the crosswind runway would reduce T.F. Green to being a one-runway airport is unfounded.

     "It's a beautiful argument, but the problem is that they haven't looked at all the options," he said.

     At the center of the argument is that off the southeast end of the crosswind runway is an urban wetland predominantly flowing from the airport, and a second wetland from Buckeye Brook, both of which would be affected by an extension.

     "We don't support a runway extension that would fill in the wetlands that are among the most valuable wetlands in the city," said DePasquale.

     Cheston said RIAC has been in conversation with the Rhode Island DEM on a "staff level," and he has not heard any objections to what RIAC plans to propose.

     Charles Horbert, permitting supervisor at the DEM, said nobody has approached the organization at this point for an application.