Construction of a McKinney airport expansion could start this year.
That’s after voters struck down $200 million in bond funds for expanding the city’s regional airport for commercial use in 2023. But the city is still moving forward with the project.
City and airport staff laid out a preliminary timeline for the airport expansion during a work session meeting on Tuesday. Construction would start May 25, with a scheduled opening of the new terminal in 2026.
Council members approved a resolution at a meeting Tuesday evening that supported the proposed site plan for the expansion. The Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to give final approval on the site plan at its meeting next week after a public hearing.
The proposed site plan for the airport includes a new Taxiway “Charlie” on the east side of the airport runway and a new roundabout for cars to enter the airport from FM 546. The plan also includes details for a 48,000 square foot terminal with parking.
Bridgette Wallis, who runs the McKinney Citizen to Citizen Blog, said the council is ignoring the will of the voters. She said that’s a pattern regarding the airport. The council approved the funding to buy the 190 acres of land for the expansion in 2018 after voters rejected a bond to fund the purchase in 2015.
“This is extra depressing, because this is two bond elections now that have failed, and they went around and still did it anyway,” Wallis said.
Council member Patrick Cloutier said before the council voted on the resolution that he respects the voters’ decision. He said the council should do its best to ensure it doesn’t use property tax funds to pay for the airport expansion, which the voters rejected in the bond election.
Al Perry told the city council during public comments that he — and others McKinney residents — support the airport expansion project. He said voters rejected the bond funding, not the airport expansion as a whole.
“I'm going to ask you each to look far enough down the road, past the naysayers, past the folks on Facebook and next door that continue to conflate the bond failure with support for the airport because those two things do not align,” Perry said.
City staff estimate that the airport expansion should cost about $72 million. The city approved about $5.4 million in funding from sales tax revenue to help pay for the airport project last year. Other potential funding sources include a $30 million federal loan for transportation projects.
McKinney has approved other major development projects, including an amphitheater that can hold up to 20,000 people and a 35-acre water park. Both projects are expected to break ground this year.
Tom Michero, a McKinney resident, said the rapid development in McKinney will harm the city’s quality of life. He said the city council should focus protecting the health and safety of its citizens instead.
“They’re acting like a private company that’s developing a business, but that’s not what the city is supposed to do,” Michero said.
He said a commercial airport in McKinney would increase traffic and industrialize the city’s downtown.
But Cloutier said North Texas needs a third large commercial airport to serve its growing population. McKinney is the county seat of Collin County, one of the fastest growing counties in the nation.
Cloutier pointed out that the Seattle metro area has 4.1 million people and two airports, the same number of commercial airports as the DFW metroplex, which has 8.2 million residents.
Cloutier said the McKinney airport will fill that gap.
“There is no alternative,” he said. “This is going to happen.”
Got a tip? Email Caroline Love at clove@kera.org.
Caroline Love is a Report For America corps member for KERA News.
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