HIGH POINT – A month ago, High Point’s leaders got a rude awakening when they found out about what one of the city’s neighbors to the north was up to.

This week, the City Council heard more detail about the Piedmont Triad International Airport’s draft master plan update, which proposes that the airport grow by 2,300 acres over the course of 30-plus years.

City leaders have voiced concerns about how an expansion could affect High Point, especially potential noise impact from planes taking off and landing on a possible additional runway.

“For all of us, it was news. It came out of left field. It was a big surprise for us,” City Manager Strib Boynton told council members during a briefing on the plan.

The draft was put together by airport consultant URS Corp. of Tampa, Fla., whose representatives did not solicit input from High Point officials. The council learned last month about the contents of the plan, which foresees a possible third parallel runway on the western side of PTIA.

“Nothing is in stone. This is a draft plan,” said PTIA Executive Director Ted Johnson. “We may never need a third parallel runway. We put it on the master plan simply to try to preserve an expansion area for the airport, and west is the only direction we can go. Whether it will be built, I don’t know. It will never be built in my lifetime.”

City officials said one of their priorities should be protecting areas between the city and the airport to the north from noise-sensitive land uses. The territory is now in unincorporated Guilford County but within the city’s future growth area.

“It’s just ridiculous to think about putting residential and schools in that area,” said Mayor Becky Smothers, who stressed the importance of lobbying county leaders to ensure this isn’t permitted there.

Council members questioned the need for another runway, pointing out the proximity of Smith Reynolds Airport in Winston-Salem to PTIA.

“You’re talking about spending billions of taxpayer dollars here when we already have a third runway,” said Councilman Latimer Alexander. “North Carolina has invested in a lot of runways that are underutilized.”

Boynton said the city will have its comments on the draft to the airport authority by early September. The authority could then adopt the plan.

“You’ve got 100,000 people to the south of this airport, and I hope we’re given a little bit more consideration,” said Councilman Bill Bencini. “A long time ago, the city did a good job with its planning in this area. I don’t think our neighbors did such a good job.”

pkimbrough@hpe.com | 888-3531