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The resolution also requires consultants Talbert & Bright to analyze the environmental and financial cost of the plan they have already recommended -- a two-phase extension that would push the runway from its present length of 4,300 feet to 5,400 over several years.
Monday's resolution incorporates suggestions from council members recommending shorter extensions to 4,600 feet or 5,000 feet, which members Steve Baer and John Safay said will allow the island to retain commercial service at less cost, and with less destruction to the north end of the airport property.
The County Council supported the plan, 7-3, and Town Council, 5-2. The votes came four hours after the officials gathered to hear impassioned argument from dozens of townspeople over airport expansion.
Realtors and private pilots wondered if the island could retain its economic base without catering to corporate business traffic which needs a longer runway.
"Those people are the people spending money on this island," said Lottie Woodward, a real estate agent.
"It's the fat cats that are causing property values to increase here like they always have," she said.
Residents of Palmetto Hall, Port Royal Plantation, Baygall and the Spa at Port Royal pleaded with the councils to keep the runway as it is, fearing the noise, drop in property values, and pollution that might come with possible expansion.
Becky Guin, whose home stands at the mouth of Fish Haul Creek under the flight path, spoke forcefully to both councils.
"When we moved here we were told that the airport would never be expanded," she said, adding that both councils were reneging on resolutions they passed over the past decade not to expand the runway.
"It appears that council resolutions are meaningless," she said, asking members not to dismiss residents' feelings for the "convenience of a small interest group and their coins."
The consultants said none of the proposed extensions would allow larger jets, either commercial or private, to fly fully loaded into Hilton Head. Those planes need more runway than 5,400 feet, said consultant Bill Pearson.
Consultants also conceded that extending the runway beyond 4,800 feet would largely benefit large private aircraft instead of the turboprop planes commercial carriers now use at the airport. That benefit is not worth the disruption it would cause to the community, some council members said.
Mayor Tom Peeples said he still favors the 5,400-foot extension, which he said was "in the best long-term interest of the town," and preserves St. James Baptist Church and doesn't require the condemnation of homes.
The resolution does not commit the town to one extension plan, but requires the consultants to examine the costs of each possible extension. That analysis should be completed in the next two months, consultants said.
Town Council members Ken Heitzke and Bill Ferguson voted against it, as did County Council members Steve Baer, Laura von Harten and Herbert Glaze.
