This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Business & Tech

Group Wants to Explore Options for Briscoe Privatization

Fly Gwinnett Forward holds press conference to make its case for commercial service to Lawrenceville airport.

The of Briscoe Field continued today as Fly Gwinnett Forward, a proponent of privatization, made its first public comment at the Flying Machine Restaurant at Briscoe Field.

The group headed by Paula Hastings, Mike Royal and Jimmy Norton, made their statements in support of evolving Briscoe Field into a regional airport with scheduled service and pushed county leaders to move forward with the Request for Proposals process. Norton, a Snellville resident, currently serves on the Grayson and Snellville Development Authorities according to the group's website. Royal is District 3 Commissioner Mike Beaudreau's appointee to the Gwinnett County Zoning Board of Appeals and serves as the Board's chairman. Hastings, a resident of the Collins Hill area, is a former Gwinnett County planning commissioner and a member of Engage Gwinnett.

Each member of Fly Gwinnett Forward made statements regarding why creating a regional airport at the site of the Gwinnett County Airport will provide an economic boost to Gwinnett County and why having a passenger airport in Lawrenceville will provide a convenient alternative to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

As a basis of comparison, Norton presented the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in South Carolina as a potential airport to model Briscoe Field after stating the many similarities between the two.

“Greenville-Spartanburg airport is similar in many respects,” Norton said. “It has a single runway, it’s located in proximity to I-85, and has similar attributes with just a slightly smaller population.”

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

Norton cited a study done regarding the economic benefits of the Greenville-Spartanburg airport as a possibility of the financial growth Gwinnett County could see with a similar model in place.

“Some of the highlights of this report include the total number of jobs created were 3,692 – 828 of those were at the airport,” he said. “The total economic output to the region was $377 million. The total state and local revenues of Greenville-Spartanburg was $21 million. Visitor spending output accounted for $168 million.”

Royal said the spending done by businesses and travelers at the airport is one of the most important of the economic advancements the new airport model could have. He also claimed that having an airport in close proximity to the many businesses in Gwinnett County would help attract and retain new ones.

“We do not want another Hartsfield,” he said. “But if we want to retain and recruit more companies like Cisco, NCR, and others … they need to be close to their customers and their suppliers. The more convenient you can make it for them to get to their customers and suppliers, the more likely they are to locate where you are.”

Another proponent point of view added by Royal was the convenience of having a closer airport for North Georgia residents going on vacation, rather than having to travel to Atlanta. Royal cited Washington, New York, Dallas and Orlando as possible destinations of future flights out of Gwinnett.

The group also addressed some concerns over the airport, including increased noise. Hastings gave the example of Greenville-Spartanburg’s final flight time of 11 p.m. as a potential curfew and Norton made the claim that today’s passenger jets are much quieter than the ones of the past.

“Jet aircrafts today have a much smaller noise footprint than they did five years ago,” he said. “The advances in engine technology have made them much quieter. The addition of 60 flights a day out of here might be hardly noticeable.”

There was also , a group that has also shown interest in the privatization of Briscoe Field. Hastings said none of the members of Fly Gwinnett Forward are working in conjunction with Propeller and Royal said though the group does not necessarily support Propeller, it supports what it could do to Briscoe Field.

“We think the opportunity for limited scheduled service here at Briscoe Field is a tremendous economic opportunity for our county,” Royal said. “As far as we know, because we haven’t seen the RFP’s, Propeller is the only one that wants to do that. We want to see this RFP so Propeller has to lay their cards on the table for proponents and opponents to see what they want to do.”

Though this event was an opportunity for Fly Gwinnett Forward to air its point of view on the topic, Hastings said she and the other group members will be open to discussion in a forum style in the future.

“We would urge the commissioners as we have told them over and over again to allow a path to explore the benefits of this opportunity with full and open debate, which is key,” she said.

Download the movie

Download the movie

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?