Rumors of Houston SW Airport in Arcola (Fact or Fiction)-

This FBN comment was posted by a former Arcola city council candidate and activist in an area blog in response to a comment about the opposition to the expansion of HSWA raising the question of who is looking at the Arcola Airport property. So far this is just an unconfirmed rumor, but we will follow this story as it progresses (click title link for background and discussion thread):

Tom Hilton - Jun 26, 10:30 am
Howdy,
No, I’m not anti-growth – I’m for the RIGHT kind of growth. Arcola is a living organism, which unfortunately has a cancerous growth living inside it. This cancer keeps wanting to spread, endangering the very life of this tiny town. The cancer needs to be held in check because it is already too large for the space alloted, yet it continues to want to mestasticize. We are against the growth of this cancer, yes. Do you really believe that if Houston Intercontinental wanted to expand it’s runway right into the heart of downtown Houston, that it would be benficial to the City? Well, that is the situation that Arcola is facing.

As far as keeping people in the dark ages, perhaps you should educate yourself about the way the airport owner, Fort Bend EDC, and others attempted to rush this “Feasibility Study” through Commissioner’s Court without anyone having adequate time to study what it contained. Thanks to Sugar Land City Council, the Commissioners were forced to answer 26 questions before taking action. Guess waht? After the “facts” in the study were shown in the LIGHT OF DAY, the County was FORCED to refuse sponsorship of this boondoggle because it became clear that it was not in the best interests of anyone involved, except for the airport owner.

The fact is, that the airport owner has recently been approached by developers interested in buying his airport and the 211 acres north of it in order to develop this land to it’s true potential. Just the act of taking the airport acreage off of the +_ free County tax roles, would be an incredible financial windfall for Arcola…for example, the 77 acres that the runway sits on is probably worth close to 6 million dollars, yet is on the County tax roles valued at +_80,000 because it is a public use runway. How much tax money is this cancer sucking up that Arcola could use? Imagine what benefits would arise for Arcola if the land was developed PROPERLY, generating true jobs, sales tax, property tax, etc. etc.

I could go on, but I am just trying to bring you out of the Dark Ages Dan.

Good luck with your investments!

Tom Hilton