LIVERMORE — This Tri-Valley city is considering expanding and improving its municipal airport to add more resources for emergency response teams, bolster its air traffic control capabilities and develop newer technologies, including hydrogen and electric powered planes.
Plans call for creating an Aviation Innovation Center and redeveloping about 165 acres spread across 14 undeveloped sites of the 590-acre Livermore Municipal Airport, which is located in the western part of the city, south of Interstate 580 between El Charro Road, Isabel Avenue and Jack London Boulevard.
The airport does not provide commercial airline passenger services but has helped emergency aircraft fighting wildfires and has been a hub for jets, especially when the Bay Area hosts large events Super Bowl LI in 2016.
Livermore Mayor John Marchand called the airport an “economic engine” for the city with “explosive possibilities there.”
“We’re getting away from the piston powered aircraft and on to these new technologies,” Marchand said. “That’s really going to reinforce Livermore’s role as an innovation leader at the airport.”
Marchand added that the airport could be used to taxi people between other regional airports, or by companies that don’t want their employees stuck in I-580 traffic, which the mayor called a “parking lot” during morning and evening commutes.
According to a city survey, more than half of residents surveyed had concerns about noise from air traffic, as well as worsening air quality.
Marchand acknowledged that some may find the small, piston-powered, planes to be noisy and that others worry about unleaded fuel harming the air locally. But he said that building out an innovation center — which is part of the redevelopment plan — and allowing new aviation technologies would provide the opportunity for Livermore to mitigate those concerns.
“This will provide what the community wants. The community has said they want quiet, clean technologies,” Marchand said. “We will have all of the resources down there. There’s several very interesting technologies and companies that are looking for a place to land, if you will.”
The Livermore Airport Commission is set to discuss the development plans at its meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, and the Livermore City Council could discuss the proposal as early as next month.