The following
position has been adopted by:
U.S.
Representative Edward Markey
U.S.
Representative Martin Meehan
U.S.
Representative John Tierney
State
Representatives: Cory Atkins State Senators: Susan Fargo
Jay Kaufman
Robert Havern
Charles Murphy
Pam Resor
Citizen Groups: Safeguarding the Historic Hanscom
Area’s Irreplaceable Resources (ShhAir)
Save Our Heritage (SOH)
2002 Revised Hanscom at the Crossroads
Whereas:
The historic area surrounding and abutting Hanscom Field, the birthplace
of the American Revolution, is hallowed ground belonging to the entire nation
and must be preserved for future generations of Americans.
• Hanscom Field sits in the midst of one of the
nation's most important historic treasures: the battlegrounds of
•
• In addition to the National Park, within
three runway lengths of the airport there are more than one thousand National
Historic Register and National Landmark sites, including the homes of Alcott,
Thoreau, Hawthorne and Emerson, and over eight thousand acres of protected
public open space, including Walden Pond and Walden Woods, the birthplace and
symbol of environmental consciousness.
• This historic area is also a linchpin of the
recently created, 42-community, interstate Freedom’s Way Heritage Area.
Whereas: Tourism is the third largest industry in Massachusetts, and the historic area surrounding Hanscom Field is a major tourist attraction which will be damaged by further development of the airport.
•
Whereas:
Hanscom has been the second busiest airport in New England for
decades, and has exceeded two hundred thousand annual takeoffs and landings for
the past two years in a row.
• As a general aviation airport, Hanscom
serves private pilots, corporate aviation, charters, flight schools and other
business operations. Without such a
large general aviation airport close to
• Even without the dire consequences of the
recent expansion of commercial and corporate aviation, Hanscom has had, and
will continue to have, serious traffic, noise, sprawl and pollution impacts on
its environs.
Whereas:
Recent, unprecedented developments and current activity at Hanscom are
an immediate threat to this historic, environmentally sensitive area and demand
urgent action, lest we face irrevocable loss.
•
Rapid and escalating changes in aviation at Hanscom Field over the last few
years have confirmed the fears of community leaders, residents, the National
Park Service, Walden preservationists and historians around the country, and
are destroying the delicate balance between the airport and its environs.
• Despite years of assurances that Hanscom
would remain a general aviation airport and not take scheduled airline traffic,
the Massport board voted in 1999 to allow commercial passenger service at
Hanscom. This major change in use of the
field was made unilaterally, without appropriate consultation with the affected
communities or with the National Park Service.
• Since 1999 the number of commercial flights
has mushroomed and threatens to exceed the peak level of daily operations (48)
contemplated in the 1995 Generic Environmental Impact Report.
• Fractional
jet ownership (time-sharing) has created a new type of passenger aviation and
initiated a new era of increased corporate jet use. Jet operations at Hanscom
doubled between 1995 and 2000, and in recent months jet activity levels have
more than tripled over what they were in 1995.
Jets account for 80 percent of the airport noise.
•
The burgeoning use of Hanscom for
commercial and corporate passenger aviation is driving out private pilots and
flight schools, drastically changing the character of the airport and its
impacts on its environs.
• In recent years Massport has spent millions
of dollars on aviation infrastructure and has announced plans for the
expenditure of additional millions to support the expansion of both commercial
and corporate aviation at Hanscom.
Massport has also announced an unprecedented plan to cut many thousands
of trees and clear other vegetation around the airport, including the removal
of seven to ten thousand trees in the
• These
aviation changes are compounding serious traffic congestion on the region’s
already overburdened roads and highways.
• There are recurring and credible reports
that Federal Express and other cargo and passenger airlines are eyeing Hanscom.
• A recent change in the state’s environmental
regulations has seriously eroded our ability to protect the Hanscom area’s
historic and environmental treasures.
Therefore:
We call for an immediate moratorium on any additional passenger
aviation, including commercial, corporate and jet time-sharing, any changes of
use, and any infrastructure improvements or new development at Hanscom until a regionally
driven, multi-state, multi-modal transportation plan is in place. Such planning must take account of all the
• Massport
is making piecemeal, ad hoc decisions that are permanently damaging historic
sites and that are both economically and environmentally shortsighted. These decisions do not add up to wise
transportation planning, but do, in their cumulative impact, have a devastating
and permanent impact on this critical and fragile region.
• There must be official acknowledgement that
Hanscom has a limited role to play in regional aviation and that going beyond
those limits has unacceptable consequences for the Greater Boston area, the
Commonwealth, and the nation. Policies
must be put in place that will assure, in perpetuity, a defined and limited
role for Hanscom.
• The
economic, environmental and historical importance of this area makes it a
unique
April 2002