Stewart Airport and the Hudson Valley -- Finding the Right Balance

Growth caused by the planned expansion of Stewart Airport would profoundly impact the Hudson Valley.

Since the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey acquired Stewart International Airport in 2007, Scenic Hudson has been actively engaged in shaping future growth -- both at the facility and in the surrounding area -- while minimizing potential environmental impacts.

A 20-year investment in Stewart
Scenic Hudson has been a key player in debates surrounding Stewart Airport for two decades. Beginning in 1989, we engaged in a major initiative to rein in the facility's expansion. During a hard-fought, nine-year campaign, we worked with other concerned citizens and organizations to win permanent protection of 6,200 acres of buffer lands surrounding the airport (now Stewart State Forest), and tackled critical noise and air-quality impacts. See this timeline for complete details.

Many of the most important landscapes we've protected -- including Fishkill Ridge, Mount Beacon and the Beacon waterfront, Snake Hill, Plum Point on Newburgh Bay and iconic Storm King Mountain – are within a 10-mile radius of Stewart's runways.

Scenic Hudson would like to see the airport become a world-recognized model and new standard for innovative thinking on environmentally sensitive carbon-negative airport design. We believe Stewart can serve as a gateway to the Mid-Hudson Valley within the context of a regional airport, not a fourth downstate jetport.

If the right approach is taken, a thoughtfully sized and moderately expanded airport will bolster the region's economy and quality of life. If the wrong approach is taken, it could lead to sprawl, traffic and pollution that would diminish people's enjoyment of the valley's scenic, recreational and historic treasures -- and reduce the economic boost we get from tourism. Scenic Hudson believes this project will have far-reaching implications for the Hudson River corridor and much of the lower Hudson Valley for decades to come.

Striking a balance

The projected surge in air traffic to the New York metropolitan area -- up to 50 million additional passengers by 2025 -- is putting tremendous pressure on the Port Authority to increase capacity. With LaGuardia, JFK and Newark squeezed for space, Stewart's 2,000-plus acres are seen as a "blank slate," with abundant opportunities for growth. Boasting one of America's longest runways, it also could accommodate expanded freight shipments.

Scenic Hudson has joined with others in the community who oppose transformation of Stewart into the New York metropolitan area's fourth jetport. The challenge is to determine where the tipping point lies in the tradeoff between more flights and jobs and more noise, smog and sprawl. Scenic Hudson's goals for Stewart strike the right balance, promising considerable economic benefits while safeguarding natural resources that contribute immeasurably to our quality of life, health and prosperity. They include:

• Ensuring Stewart remains a robust, regional airport primarily serving as a gateway to the Mid-Hudson Valley.
• Supporting the Port Authority's vision of establishing Stewart as the world's first "carbon-negative" airport – yielding a net reduction in carbon emissions – and pushing for environmentally friendly design, construction and operations.
• Protecting the Hudson Valley's magnificent, carbon-absorbing landscapes as a way of offsetting increased emissions from the expanded airport.
• Concentrating growth at the airport, the City of Newburgh and its waterfront and not on farmland and other environmentally sensitive open space. Growth should reflect the principles of transit-oriented development (TOD), concentrating homes, shops and businesses within walking distance of mass-transit hubs.
• Guarding against deteriorated air and noise quality that would destroy the public's enjoyment of the region's majestic state parks and national historic sites.
• Creating a mass-transit link between Stewart and Newburgh's Hudson River waterfront that becomes a catalyst for the city's downtown revitalization.

For additional explanations of these goals, see this correspondence exchanged between Scenic Hudson and Port Authority Executive Directory Chris Ward in 2008. To read an op-ed by Scenic Hudson Senior Vice President Steve Rosenberg articulating our vision for Stewart, click here.

We've Made Significant Progress

Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward has noted that "the downturn in the economy provides the Port Authority and regional planning agencies the opportunity to plan and get [Stewart] right." Seizing this initiative, Scenic Hudson's experts have made important progress in pressing our agenda for the airport:

1. The final report by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Blue Ribbon Commission on Sustainability, released in 2009, identified Stewart as a priority for smart growth/transit-oriented development. Ned Sullivan chaired the commission's Smart Growth/TOD Subcommittee.
2. We're in conversations with MTA long-range planners conducting an analysis of a public transit link between Stewart and Manhattan.
3. As a member of the Port Authority's Citizens Advisory Panel (CAP) for Stewart, Scenic Hudson Senior Vice President Steve Rosenberg led efforts to include regional land-use planning as part of its mission. Recently the Port Authority released a Sustainability Plan outlining goals, objectives and strategies to help Stewart minimize its environmental impact. The CAP is charged with providing additional recommendations and ways to implement the plan.
4. Scenic Hudson has been actively engaged in the Newburgh Area Transportation and Land Use Study, which will examine transportation systems, regional connectivity and development in northeastern Orange County. We continue advocating for strategies that will link Stewart to downtown Newburgh and its waterfront via mass transit, and encourage smart development in the urban core.
5. The Port Authority has announced in principle that it will purchase offsets as part of its commitment to a carbon negative airport (see this press release for details.) It also has indicated an initial willingness to consider land preservation as a source of carbon mitigation, potentially creating a new revenue source for land-protection. As part of our Saving the Land That Matters Most campaign, we're urging the Port Authority, the state, Orange County and other land trusts to develop a plan to conserve nearby lands meeting the state's highest standards for ecological and scenic values.
6. Thanks to a recent grant from the Environmental Protection Fund Smart Growth Grant Program, Scenic Hudson is collaborating with a team of experts to develop a Lower Hudson Valley Smart Growth Plan. It will address carbon emissions, economic efficiency and quality-of-life issues, and will generate plans for priority growth and preservation areas to balance the region's projected population surge.

The Future: Turning our Visions into Reality

Scenic Hudson is working to ensure that Stewart International Airport evolves into the nation's first environmentally and economically sustainable and carbon-negative regional airport. “Our agenda for Stewart has received positive reactions from virtually every stakeholder. Now we must turn our promising strategies into actionable plans -- a task made harder by the current state and global fiscal crisis.”-- Ned Sullivan Our goals for Stewart support the Port Authority's vision to create a global hub for innovative thinking based on green technologies. The next year will be critical to ensure that the Port Authority's plans -- as well as the scale of operations defining Stewart as a regional airport -- are grounded in agreements for development that protect the natural and historic resources that define the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area.

Scenic Hudson will continue to work with the Port Authority and other stakeholders to help shape the growth in and around Stewart International Airport. Based on its pledge to invest $500 million at the airport, Scenic Hudson is confident the Port Authority is taking Stewart International Airport seriously.