On May 15th, members of Zero Expansion and current and past members of the Flying Cloud Advisory Airport Commission will propose a resolution to the City Council.

The resolution addresses specific changes to the city’s new position toward the expansion of Flying Cloud Airport. What was historically a neutral position toward the airport expansion from 2002 to 2007, after the Final Agreement was signed and the city agreed not to oppose the expansion, has become an advocacy position, under the new council leadership. Now after many months we want to put the issue of the “lobbying letter” behind us and try to fix the underlying problem. The problem is that the city appears to have lost any institutional memory of the 20 years of opposition to the airport preceding the 2002 agreement and the five years of neutrality after the Final Agreement was signed.

From 2002 until 2007, it was inconceivable that an Eden Prairie City Council would ever actually come out and lobby for the airport expansion. Now, in 2007, just a few months into the new council leadership, the city has taken a new direction without any public discussion.

Residents of Eden Prairie, formerly content that the city was on their side of this issue, were not forewarned by anything said during the election nor were they apprised in the three short months after the election that the new council was moving into a new direction of advocacy for the airport.

The only response to such an undisclosed policy reversal is a city resolution codifying an official neutral position, which would immediately resolve this situation, for now and in the future. It is a constructive step to ensure that decades of historic precedence and consistent resident support are justly represented in city policy. In our discussions with some Council Members, there appears to be no reason why the council couldn’t vote on a resolution like this and resolve this issue.

In the week preceding May 15th we will attempt to contact all council members and get their support for this resolution. We appreciate the city giving us an opportunity to present this resolution and help solve this problem. Please join us on May 15th in council chambers in the Open Podium session (6:30 to 6:50) of the council meeting to support the resolution.

Zero Expansion