Airport Acrimony Between Dania Beach And Broward Co. Could End
DANIA BEACH (CBSMiami) – An end to the bitter legal fight between tiny Dania Beach and Broward County could be about to end.
For years and years and years, the two entities have battled over the South runway expansion at Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport.
Tuesday night, Dania Beach unanimously approved a settlement with the county. According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the settlement moves to the County Commission for final approval on Tuesday.
This has happened before. A previous settlement between the two failed when the Federal Aviation Administration nixed it as ineligible for federal funding.
The latest version is similar in that it would result in payments to about 857 homeowners in the high-noise zone. The structure of the deal is different, though, and was crafted with guidance from the FAA, officials have said.
Still, airport officials here said it's unlike any deal that's been done in a runway expansion fight in America, and if it is approved, it could serve as a model for similarly situated cities.
Sometimes, a neighborhood is simply bought up under eminent domain principles and torn down when an airport is expanding, in order to avoid fights like this. Broward County made the decision years ago not to do that.
The city of Dania Beach fought the runway, and when it became clear that battle was lost, the city fought for compensation of the nearby residents.
The rancorous runway war has cost Dania Beach and the county a lot of money over the years, and untold staff hours. The airport expansion has also defined city politics for two decades. Not everyone in the coastal city was starkly opposed to the airport's growth. But for some, it was a fight that could never be dropped.
Could it finally be over?
According to the city's outside attorney, Neil McAliley, here's what the settlement means for Broward's oldest city:
"Since the early 1990s, the City has been involved in a series of lawsuits related to Broward County's plan to expand the South Runway at the Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Since 2005 alone, the City has been involved in five separate lawsuits related to the South Runway project, including cases against the Federal Aviation Administration
("FAA"), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Broward County. In the cases against the FAA and Army Corps, the courts have refused to stop the South Runway project. The City's case against Broward County seeking to enforce provisions of the 1995 Interlocal Agreement is scheduled for trial in early 2014. The proposed new settlement would resolve all litigation related to the South Runway project. The focus of the settlement is on providing benefits to affected City residents, which we believe will provide between $25 million to $40 million in incremental value to City residents.
The proposed settlement also would provide benefits to the City itself, which we value at $2.5
million to $7.0 million over the first four years of the settlement."
