Hanscom At the Crossroads

• Hanscom Field sits in the midst of one of the nation's most important historic treasures: the battlegrounds in Lexington and Concord where the "shot heard ‘round the world" was fired and the American Revolution began. Congress saw fit to preserve this hallowed ground by establishing Minute Man National Historical Park to preserve the famous Battle Road and the numerous battle sites where the April 19 skirmishes between the British and the local Minutemen took place.
• Minute Man National Historical Park abuts Hanscom Field. Access to the airport is through the Park, along the historic Battle Road - the very resource the Park was created to protect.
• In addition to the Minute Man National Historical Park, there are over 1.000 National Historic Register and National Landmark sites (including the homes of Alcott, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Emerson) within three runway lengths of the airport, as well as Walden Pond, birthplace and symbol of environmental consciousness.
• These historic sites draw over 2,000,000 visitors per year and are a critical economic engine of tourism in Massachusetts.

• Hanscom has long been the second busiest airport in New England with almost 200,000 take-offs and landings a year.
• Hanscom serves private pilots, corporate aviation, charters, flight schools and other business operations. Without such a large general aviation airport close to Boston, many of these planes would be landing at Logan, further compounding congestion there.
• General aviation, particularly corporate aviation, has increased greatly. Jet flights are up 40% in the past two years and night flights are up 17% this past year alone.
• Hanscom has had and continues to have serious traffic, noise, sprawl and pollution impacts on its treasured, sensitive and threatened environs.

• After years of assurances that Hanscom would remain a general aviation airport and not take scheduled airline traffic, the Massport board voted on July 15, 1999 to allow commercial passenger service at Hanscom. This represents a major change in use of the field and directly contradicts promises made to the Hanscom communities over the years. This policy change was made without the legally required, not to mention appropriate, consultation with the affected communities.
• Commercial passenger flights began to and from Hanscom in September, shortly after the Massport vote. Since then the number of daily takeoffs and landings has more than doubled and is expected to grow by 300% in the first year. To date, these flights have been to and from rather remote airports, but Shuttle America is now pursuing further expansion, including permission to begin service between Hanscom and LaGuardia Airport in New York City.
• A recent change in the state’s environmental regulations has seriously eroded our ability to protect the Hanscom area’s historic and environmental treasures.
• A recently enacted federal law may make it easier for Shuttle America or some other carrier to begin serving New York and other major cities across the country. This threatens to transform Hanscom into a major commercial airport.
• Massport is now encouraging construction of a new large corporate aviation office and hangar at Hanscom, which, if built, would allow a major expansion of terminal operations at the field. The proposed new office building is three times the size of the current terminal.
• There are recurring and credible reports that Federal Express and other cargo and passenger airlines are eyeing Hanscom now that Massport has opened the doors to commercial operations.
• All these development pressures occur on top of the need of the Air Force to expand its activities at Hanscom facilities, bringing 800 new employees and the attendant car traffic to the already-overcharged roads.

Therefore: In the absence of a long-range, regional, smart growth strategy, there must be a moratorium on any additional commercial aviation, changes of use, and new infrastructure development at Hanscom. (This proposed moratorium would not apply to Hanscom Air Force Base or any military uses of the airport.)