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Keep your treetops down around the Crystal Airport

Posted on March 2nd, 2009 – 10:03 AM
By James Shiffer

lakotastrees.jpgThe eight white pine trees are part of the family for Linda and Charles Lakotas of Crystal. So they contacted me when they were told the trees would have to go, so that wayward pilots at the Crystal Airport wouldn’t run into them. It’s a classic confrontation between property rights and public priorities, and I thought it was particularly interesting given the city of Crystal has repeatedly urged the Metropolitan Airports Commission to shut down the airport, though its motivation is primarily about opening up a big chunk of land to redevelopment, rather than saving trees. Read more in my Sunday Whistleblower column.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 10:03 am and is filed under Government spends your money, Property problems. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “Keep your treetops down around the Crystal Airport”

  1. John Caye Says:
    March 3rd, 2009 at 9:50 am

    If the trees are in the landing or takeoff path of the runway and were planted after the airport was established then they should be trimmed. If the trees are not on or near the flight path or were planted before the airport was there, then the problem is with the airport. Has the sirport notified property owners or potential property owners of this issue in the past?
    All that said, the airport does have public domain rights that could take precedence over the property owners rights.

  2. James Shiffer Says:
    March 3rd, 2009 at 2:05 pm

    I would suspect the airport was there before the trees, but I bet the FAA runway protection zone came later. This is the first time, Mr. Lakotas told me, that the airport has approached him about this in 26 years.

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