When the first runway at what was to become Cherry Capital Airport was built in 1934, the site -- about two miles southeast of Front and Cass in downtown Traverse City -- probably seemed pretty far away. For its time, it was.
Now, however, the airport's desire for more space to allow commercial jets to fly at full capacity no matter the weather has bumped directly into the city that once seemed so distant. The result is a $6.7 million plan -- to be paid for by the airport -- to reroute a portion of Garfield Avenue to allow Cherry Capital to lengthen its main east-west runway.
All things considered, it is not a huge change -- or an ideal solution. Garfield will be moved about 150 feet west starting at Boon Street and then back east again closer to the Cherryland Center mall.
The airport is proposing a divided road with a median and sidewalks or a paved bike path mostly on land the airport has owned for years. Some Traverse Motors auto dealership property on the north and a single home on the south will also have to be purchased.
The move will allow Cherry Capital to add 400 feet to the west end of its present 6,500-foot runway; another 400 feet will be added near Three Mile Road.
The topography of the Holiday Hills area prevents the entire addition from being added to the east.
The additions will lengthen the runway to 7,300 feet and create a Federal Aviation Administration-mandated 1,000 feet of obstruction-clear space beyond the runway. Right now, the 6,500-foot main runway is too short and the FAA limits how many passengers and how much fuel planes can carry in the warm summer months and when runways are wet or snow-covered.
The longer runway will allow for up to 1,000 more passengers a year, particularly during the high-traffic summer months, Cherry Capital officials said.
It is hardly an ideal situation, but then the airport is hardly in an ideal location.
Since passenger service began in 1938, both the airport and the city have grown, a lot.
Now, Cherry Capital is a big facility squeezed into too little land. Something has to give.
The longer runway won't mean larger jets but it should mean more efficient and cost-effective business for the airlines -- airlines the region depends on for tourism and long-distance commuting, both key elements of the local economy.
Keeping the planes coming is important; putting a kink in Garfield is a relatively low price to pay.
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