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That was the question on the minds of residents who pored over maps and charts Monday during the first of a two-day period for commenting on the airport's master plan.
As people filed into a meeting room at the Hilton Head library to quiz the consultants who authored the plan, they were asked to place a red push pin on a map of the island showing where they lived. By mid-afternoon, about 30 pins dotted the map.
Cynthia Macalister, president of the Homeowners Association of the Spa on Port Royal Sound, had all of her queries answered by the consultants but remained dissatisfied. Her home is north of the airport.
"I think it's very well presented, but the extension of the runway impacts our lives in a negative way," she said. "It's the corporate jets flying over that make the most noise, and those are the planes they're trying to bring here, so a CEO can play golf."
Long Cove resident John Morrissette thought CEOs and their jets could help the airport and the island's fortunes.
"Those CEOs pump money into our economy, and they won't live where there isn't a first-class airport," he said.
A second public session is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. today at the library. The meetings follow consultants' recommendation last week that the runway be extended from 4,300 feet to 5,400 to accommodate larger jets. Some Town Council members and Mayor Tom Peeples are cool to the suggestion, saying it would take years of litigation to acquire property for the longer runway. Peeples also fears the extension might require rerouting parts of Beach City Road and William Hilton Parkway and force the relocation of St. James Baptist Church, an historic native-islander church at the runway's northern end.
Carl Ellington, manager of the Columbia branch of Talbert and Bright, the firm developing the master plan, said the consultants will return with alternatives to the 1,100- foot runway extension and propose ways to lessen the impact on the community.
He placed an overlay of a 5,400-foot runway on a map showing current airport property to illustrate different ways to extend the runway.
"We could break up the expansion over the north and south end or possibly realign the runway," he said. "We will consider as many possibilities as there are. We can be flexible with design."
Other options include a limited expansion -- or keeping the airport as is, Ellington said. The consultants said they have not yet determined how those options would affect the airport's surroundings.
County and town governments are not required to implement the consultants' recommendations, but many local officials fear that if the runway is not extended, the airport could one day lose commercial airline service.
After today's public-comment meeting, residents will have another opportunity to comment on the master plan when the next installment is completed in two months, Ellington said.
