Patrick Peters, Crystal's community development director, and John Sutter, the city's planner and redevelopment coordinator, listened patiently last week as Metropolitan Airports Commission members reviewed a reliever task force report.

Once the three-hour Management & Operations Committee meeting at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was finished, Peters and Sutter hurried back to their offices in Crystal and began working.

The duo spent the next two days drafting the city's official response to the MAC reliever airports task force report, which was scheduled for final review by MAC commissioners during their meeting Tuesday, Jan. 17.

"It's our opinion they failed on a number of points, from an economic impact and cost-benefit analysis standpoint," Peters said in a telephone interview last Thursday.

The city's response included a cover letter and a new Crystal Airport position paper that was critical of the MAC's yearlong research effort.

In a Jan. 11 letter to MAC Chairwoman Vicki Tigwell, also signed by Crystal City Manager Anne Norris, Peters provided the city's official response to the reliever report.

"The city is disappointed that the task force recommendations point to operational fixes without offering MAC commissioners and the public a promised examination of larger policy questions," Peters and Norris wrote.

The task force process failed to examine the overarching public policy question of whether there's a valid purpose for the MAC to continue to operate airports within the metro area as a convenience to recreational flyers, according to Peters.

The city was not invited to present its ideas directly to the task force for consideration, city officials contend.

At the city's request, Norris met on Nov. 29, 2005, with MAC Commissioner Jack Lanners, Woodbury, and task force members. Norris received an overview and timeline for the task force review process at that time.

In return, Norris forwarded a copy of the city's previous airport position paper, which was also available online.

"The task force has yet to share with the city what they are contemplating for Crystal," Peters wrote.

The MAC report also recommends stronger control over hangar maintenance and aesthetics.

"What about the non-aviation uses that have been observed at Crystal, such as car, boat and recreational vehicle storage?" Peters and Sutter questioned in their written reply.

Furthermore, Crystal city officials said the task force's recommendations don't address other hangar uses. Current MAC interior inspection processes allow tenants to evade the requirement that use be aviation-related.

The MAC's reliever task force report mentions Crystal's proximity to downtown Minneapolis and that it has the most runways of any reliever airport in the six-airport system.

"Why not mention that the Crystal Airport is hemmed in by residential development, and that more 300 homes lie within the runway safety zones?" city officials wrote. "Why not mention operations are declining faster than any other airport in the system?"

The MAC study uses impact multipliers in calculating the Crystal Airport has an estimated overall economic benefit to the northwest metro of $19 million annually.

That figure represents 7.6 percent of the estimated $255 million impact of the reliever system as a whole.

An estimated 200 jobs are generated by Crystal Airport, 8.9 percent of the estimated 2,258 jobs generated by the reliever system as a whole.

"Because these direct economic benefit calculations are questionable, any application of impact multipliers is also questionable. It is instructive to note that Page 6 of the MAC economic analysis states the FAA specifically excludes multipliers from its benefit cost analyses," Crystal city staff wrote.

"One of the reasons we worked frantically to pull this information together is that we've learned from a MAC staff manager there are three light jets currently on order from tenants or operators at Crystal," Peters said.

The small, turbine-powered aircraft represent the next generation of recreational airplane, Peters said.

"This concerns us, and I'm sure it will concern some of the neighbors near the airport, that these jets are going to start operating at Crystal," Peters said.

According to Crystal Airport's 2005 master record maintained by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration, currently, there are two jet aircraft based at Crystal, along with 239 single-engine and 17 multi-engine aircraft.

"Some of the airport tenants have gotten ahead of the curve and read more into what the reliever report is really is," Sutter said in an interview.

The reason city officials didn't speak at the MAC meeting. Sutter said, was because the discussion at the time focused around airport operations, maintenance and finances, subjects outside of their areas of expertise.

The MAC report also recommends stronger control over hangar maintenance and aesthetics.

"What about the non-aviation uses that have been observed at Crystal, such as car, boat and recreational vehicle storage?" Peters and Sutter questioned in their written reply.

Furthermore, Crystal city officials said the task force's recommendations don't address other hangar uses. Current MAC interior inspection processes allow tenants to evade the requirement that use be aviation-related.

The MAC's reliever task force report mentions Crystal's proximity to downtown Minneapolis and that it has the most runways of any reliever airport in the six-airport system.

"Why not mention that the Crystal Airport is hemmed in by residential development, and that more 300 homes lie within the runway safety zones?" city officials wrote. "Why not mention operations are declining faster than any other airport in the system?"

The MAC study uses impact multipliers in calculating the Crystal Airport has an estimated overall economic benefit to the northwest metro of $19 million annually.

That figure represents 7.6 percent of the estimated $255 million impact of the reliever system as a whole.

An estimated 200 jobs are generated by Crystal Airport, 8.9 percent of the estimated 2,258 jobs generated by the reliever system as a whole.

"Because these direct economic benefit calculations are questionable, any application of impact multipliers is also questionable. It is instructive to note that Page 6 of the MAC economic analysis states the FAA specifically excludes multipliers from its benefit cost analyses," Crystal city staff wrote.

"One of the reasons we worked frantically to pull this information together is that we've learned from a MAC staff manager there are three light jets currently on order from tenants or operators at Crystal," Peters said.

The small, turbine-powered aircraft represent the next generation of recreational airplane, Peters said.

"This concerns us, and I'm sure it will concern some of the neighbors near the airport, that these jets are going to start operating at Crystal," Peters said.

According to Crystal Airport's 2005 master record maintained by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration, currently, there are two jet aircraft based at Crystal, along with 239 single-engine and 17 multi-engine aircraft.

"Some of the airport tenants have gotten ahead of the curve and read more into what the reliever report is really is," Sutter said in an interview.

The reason city officials didn't speak at the MAC meeting. Sutter said, was because the discussion at the time focused around airport operations, maintenance and finances, subjects outside of their areas of expertise.