Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1976 [PAGE 508]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1976]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

497

agement, appropriate University officers, and by an Airport Advisory Committee. 1 (A presentation of the plan was made to the Board of Trustees on July 17, 1974. Trustees have received copies of the full text.) The plan explores the aviation potential of the Champaign-Urbana area and the airport facilities required to accommodate air traffic into the twenty-first century; provides an airport layout plan, a conceptual arrangement of landing area facilities with high capacity (more than adequate to meet predicted demands) ; and provides for the development of an airline terminal and general aviation facilities of equally high capacity. The plan also explores methods of airport financing, development, and operation. The consultants have recommended that the airport be developed and administered locally — under an airport authority established by consent of the voters of the Champaign-Urbana Metropolitan Area — and, therefore, the University officers have recognized the need for community consultation and reaction to this recommendation. Concurrent with the appraisal of the master plan by University officers has been the review by the Airport Advisory Committee. Although all of the members of the committee are not in total agreement on all aspects of the document, there is general agreement on several points: that the plan is technically sound and provides an understanding of the fundamental principles involved; that the report is written in terms that will be useful now or in the future; and that there is no need for inaction because of the large sums involved in the total implementation, inasmuch as the appropriate authorities can take deliberate steps to fulfill the plan and the modifications to it that are inevitable over time. At its last meeting, on December 9, 1975, the committee considered the positions expressed by its several members and approved the following resolution: That the Airport Master Plan as presented be adopted and implemented "subject to the amendment that ownership and operation of the airport should continue in the University of Illinois rather than in any local group and that the University of Illinois should make such contact with the legislature as may be deemed legally necessary to clarify its authority in the premises and to provide for the financing of the implementation of the plan.'" The work of the committee has been of material assistance to the University, and the University is appreciative of that fact. After taking into account the committee report and the analysis undertaken by the University officers, the Chancellor has now recommended: 1. T h a t the administrative officers be directed to make use of the master plan as a general planning guide in the development of the airport, with the first and immediate priority to insure that the airport continue to conform to FAA standards for commercial operation; 2. That the University continue to seek direct executive and legislative support for operational and capital funds for the airport to accomplish the objective of conforming to the FAA standards cited — with the clear understanding that such funds are to be outside those funds classified by the University, the Board

1 The committee, appointed to review the plan and to advise the Chancellor of the UrbanaChampaign campus, is as follows: W. Wayne Wettman, Chamber of Commerce, Champaign; Stanley Balbach, Chamber of Commerce, Urbana; Lewis S. Colbert, Champaign County Board; W. M. Schwengel, Champaign County Board; Willard Hodge, Champaign County Farm Bureau; Colonel John P. Rollston, Chanute Air Force Base; M. G. Snyder, City of Champaign; Ben Milbrandt, Sr. Village of Rantoul; Michael L. Terstriep, Village of Savoy; William D. Kirby, Village of Tolono; Hiram Paley, City of Urbana; Kyle Robeson. Model Community Coordinating Council; David Black, Twin City Federation of Labor; J. A. Diana, Jr., and R. E. Flexman, Universityof Illinois. 1 The resolution was approved with one negative vote (that of the representative of the Village of Savoy) and one abstention (that of one of the representatives of the Champaign County Board).