West Jordan may fan jets east

Upset at what they see as Salt Lake City's neglect of Airport No. 2, West Jordan civic and business leaders vowed Thursday to rally political support in favor of a federal plan that would shift some commercial jet traffic toward the eastern portions of Salt Lake County.

West Jordan's effort to mobilize west-side communities in support of the Northern Utah Airspace Initiative could turn the airspace redesign into something that many community leaders had hoped to avoid — a political showdown pitting Salt Lake County's east-side communities against the west.

The new-found support for the NUAI comes at a time when the project is being delayed by funding concerns at the Federal Aviation Administration.

At a Thursday meeting of the West Jordan Chamber of Commerce, NUAI representatives, led by Clark Desing, air traffic manager at Salt Lake City International Airport, gave their first presentation of the plan to a west-side community. And while the NUAI has been met with disdain on the east side, in West Jordan there was only high praise.

"We need to be contacting our state senators, our local representatives, mayors; those are the people who are going to be able to drive this effort forward," NUAI project manager George Wetherell told the crowd, which included West Jordan Mayor Bryan Holladay and chamber president Craig Dearing.

The NUAI contemplates adding a new eastern "downwind" — a flight pattern commercial jets use before beginning their final approach to the airport — over Salt Lake County. The county's airspace has only one downwind, over the west side. The initiative also considers refiguring flight patterns into Salt Lake City International.

Desing and Wetherell argue the plan is needed to avoid future flight delays at the airport, which has become the 15th busiest in the nation. East-siders, along with Salt Lake City leaders, oppose the initiative for several reasons, including noise pollution concerns and because some feel it might decrease east-side property values.

However, Dearing noted the plan could only help quality of life on the west side since it would transfer roughly 50 percent of all downwind commercial jets to the east side.

Besides championing the NUAI, many at the chamber meeting complained that Salt Lake City hasn't done enough to upgrade Airport No. 2, which is owned by Salt Lake City but is located in West Jordan near 7800 South and 4000 West.