The controversial study will cost $1.5 million. It could shape future of Hartford-Brainard Airport
Hartford Courant
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May 09, 2022 at 4:39 pm
HARTFORD — A controversial, $1.5 million study examining whether Hartford-Brainard Airport should remain open or be closed for redevelopment has been approved by the General Assembly, a study some hope will finally shape the future of the century-old airfield.
The study must be completed by October 2023, pushed back from the initially proposed Jan. 1. The study will examine environmental, regulatory and economic aspects on both sides of the debate and wouldn’t be ready until the 2024 legislative session.
“We extended it because we became convinced that by the time you got going on this and got the analysis going, we weren’t going to be ready for the next session,” state Sen. John W. Fonfara, D-Hartford, said. “We thought we had better take our time and do it right.”
The future of Brainard has been debated for decades, stretching back to the late 1950s when a large portion of the airfield was taken for redevelopment in the city’s South Meadows.
[ As Hartford-Brainard Airport controversy boils, lawmakers want new study, ‘let’s do it’ ]
The discussion heated up again last year when the Hartford City Council passed a non-binding resolution supporting redevelopment.
The debate has pitted those who support redevelopment, including Fonfara and Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, against those who say the airport should be further invested in as an economic development amenity.
Advocates for keeping the airport open, including the newly-formed Hartford Brainard Airport Association, whose members are local pilots, Brainard tenants and others, have pushed back against the airport being cast as a “a playground for rich folks” with single- and twin-engine planes.
They also say Brainard is vital for its pilot training schools and entry into the field of aviation. Fonfara has said there are more than a dozen other airport options within 20 miles of Brainard that could provide a similar function
With The Hartford skyline visible in the background, a secured plane rests on the tarmac at Brainard airport in this file photo from 2021. (Mark Mirko/The Hartford Courant)
Fonfara said the study will be led by the state Department of Economic and Community Development, which will oversee hiring consultants.
In 2016, a legislative report recommended keeping the airport open and investing further in its development.
Redevelopment, the report said, would be too costly, require large public subsidies and take at least two decades.
Fonfara said he expects this study will provide a more in-depth, objective analysis.
“A lot of emphasis in the study will be on what is the true value of the airport,” Fonfara said.
“Advocates want people to think there are these millions of dollars spun off in economic activity,” he said. “And then you have others saying there is very little. I happen to be one of those.”
A mixed-use redevelopment would benefit both the city and the region, drawing visitors and making the greater Hartford area more attractive to a young, sought-after workforce, Fonfara said. Redevelopment would open up more access to the Connecticut River and complement plans for the waterfront in East Hartford, Fonfara said.
Hartford-Brainard Airport as it appeared in 1990. (Courant file photo)
Michael Teiger, the association’s executive director, said the group supported the 2016 study, “which apparently wasn’t good enough for everybody.”
Teiger, a Hartford pulmonologist, said he doesn’t expect the new study will make any new revelations.
“We believe they are going to find what we know already: that the land is contaminated and would be exorbitantly expensive to redevelop,” Teiger said. “And they will just stop with the idea of redeveloping Brainard and go on as we should.”
“We’re happy to participate to find out just what is going on down there,” Teiger said. “But we think it’s a waste of time and a waste of $1.5 million.”
Last month, concerns about soil contamination under the airport surfaced, including coal tar, a by-product of coal gasification plants that existed in virtually every American city at the turn of the last century.
The Metropolitan District Commission, the regional water and sewer authority, spearheaded the last airport redevelopment proposal in 2006. The proposal called for nearly 7 million square feet of commercial and manufacturing space, stores, apartments, a marina, a rebuilt trash-to-energy plant, an expansion of its nearby wastewater treatment plant and a river park.
The MDC plan was headed up by William DiBella, a former Democratic state Senate majority leader who remains the MDC’s chairman.
No other conceptual plans for the area exist besides the 2006 vision advanced by the MDC.
Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.
