Cleveland is not abandoning its push to close Burke Lakefront Airport despite recent public opposition from Ohio U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno and the head of the Federal Aviation Administration.
Jessica Trivisonno, Mayor Justin Bibb’s deputy chief of staff, said Tuesday that the administration was “just as dogged” in making its case for redeveloping Burke as it was before.
“We’re not giving up,” she said in an interview. “We feel really convicted in our principles. Cleveland’s lakefront should be welcoming, it should be joyful, it should be impactful, it should be accessible. And eventually we’re going to have a Washington, D.C., that agrees with that, and so we have to be ready for that time.”
City Hall will keep working on the three possible paths that city officials see for closing the airport, she said. One is to seek FAA approval for shutting down Burke. Another is an act of Congress. The third is to wait until 2039, when Burke’s federal grants run out and the city would have more leeway to shut it down.
During a tour of an air traffic control center in Oberlin, Moreno and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told News 5 Cleveland and Fox 8 that they didn’t support scrapping Burke. The news of Moreno’s opposition appeared to come as a surprise to supporters of Bibb’s plan to close the airport.
Bibb visited Washington in June to discuss Burke with Northeast Ohio’s congressional delegation and a U.S. Department of Transportation official, the city has said. Before last week’s news from Moreno and the FAA, a city spokesman had described the meetings as productive opportunities to “present comprehensive plans regarding the closure of Burke.”
City still pressing case for closing Burke
Cleveland hasn’t officially asked the FAA for permission to close Burke, according to the agency. But its resistance to shutting down airports was no secret. Under the FAA’s guidelines, the agency weighs closing an airport delivers a “net benefit to civil aviation.”
Trivisonno described that process as “rigid,” but said the city would still try to build an argument that closing Burke would benefit aviation. She said she saw the Transportation Department as more open than the FAA to the idea because the department views the transportation system through a “broader lens.”
As for Congress, Trivisonno said she didn’t see why it wouldn’t be possible to win congressional support despite split opinions from Ohio’s delegation.
One group pushing to keep Burke open, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, has said the city should develop the area while preserving the airport. The Bibb administration doesn’t sound inclined to take up that idea.
“Burke has been open since 1947,” Trivisonno said. “We’ve had like 80 years to see it bear out as an economically impactful use of 450 acres of lakefront land.”
Council member: Burke debate appears paused ‘for now’
But while the mayor’s office is still pushing the throttle on closing Burke, Cleveland City Council’s point person on airports sees the debate as stalled.
Charles Slife, who chairs council’s Transportation Committee, said that Moreno won’t be a senator forever. But for now, he cast Moreno’s opinion as a decisive one in any congressional debate over closing Burke.
“I don’t see that passing the Senate if one of the state’s two senators is opposed to it,” Slife said. “It does seem like it halts the conversation for now.”
In the meantime, council members have been touring Burke, he said. Slife held several hearings on the airport and said he plans another one this fall.
Those past hearings focused on the case for closing Burke. But this next one would examine how Cleveland can better support the airport’s current operations.
