Dania Beach Residents Give Up Fight To Halt Airport Expansion
DANIA BEACH (CBS4) -- Dania Beach homeowners have given up a three-decade long fight to stop the expansion of Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport.
The battle has been to halt a $791 million runway extension that will allow large jets to fly over the neighborhood instead of the small prop planes and corporate jets that now land and take off from a nearby runway.
At one time residents were offered buyouts, but not anymore.
Even though many residents have thrown their hands up in surrender, there still is plenty of outrage.
"I'm pissed, dude!" said one resident pictured in a video shot by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
"It is not what we want, it is not fair," said another at the meeting.
Initially homeowners dug their heels in and fought the county to the tune of $1 million dollars and more, trying to keep their lifestyle. Now homeowner Dania Fairbank said "I'm not happy about it, obviously, but it's ok."
Fairbank's house is in the glidepath of the jets.
"As long as the homeowners here are treated fairly and reasonably, I don't have a problem with it," she said. "I was angry to begin with because, when we moved in, we didn't know about it."
The airport will spend a couple hundred million on soundproofing homes and buying up some trailer parks that cannot be soundproofed. They also will help homeowners like Greg Ralston who said he would probably rather sell his home than stay.
But unlike before, there is no offer on the table for a wholesale buyout.
"They want out,'' Dania City commissioner and runway foe Bob Anton said after last week's airport meeting, according to The South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "They're tired.''
Some said the aviation department should buy out all the surrounding property owners. But Broward Aviation Director Kent George said no way.
"What they want is us, the County, to come in now and buy the whole group," George said. "And that's just not going to happen. That just doesn't make sense."
About 4,500 residents will be affected by the new runway that is expected to be operational by 2014.
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