Fighting Back And Winning:
The Story of CAAP

By Russ McBrien, Development Director

Early in 1990, growth at the San Jose International Airport caused citizen's complaints to rise from a dull roar to a volume the city could no longer ignore. The airport commission sponsored a special meeting on Feb 22 at Hester school to explain airport growth to local residents. The meeting was characterized by some heated discussions, questions and few answers.

Shortly after this meeting a group of 10 concerned citizens gathered in a living room over coffee and cookies. This began the process of organizing a group that could mobilize the opposition to uncontrolled growth at the airport and ensure that quality of life safeguards were built into any expansion plans. This group put together a multi- pronged approach; organization, educational, legal and technical.

Organization:

Bylaws were drafted for a social organization to be known as CAAP. A steering committee of 12 was selected and meets weekly. A 'Neighborhood Council' of neighborhood association representatives meets periodically. CAAP-PAC, a political action committee, was formed to participate in political activity as needed to support the goals of CAAP. In the future a Not-For-Profit corporation to be known as the Neighborhood League will take on the non-political activities of CAAP.

Technical:

Our technical team has been working with the State of California, the FAA, the Air Quality board and other citizen groups, plowing through mountains of documents to develop a complete technical profile of the airport and growth alternatives. We hope to use this information to educate you an also more importantly the City Council so that they can make the best possible choices for the airport and the neighbors.

Education:

Members of CAAP are continually attending meetings held by the Airport Noise Advisory Committee, the Airport Master Plan Advisory Committee and any other important meetings relating to the airport. We in turn have tried to pass on as much information as possible with 'town hall' style meetings. We continue to have meetings and will use this newsletter to keep you current on what is happening. We have used major advertising to inform the valley about the serious affects of the airport and where the candidates stood on airport growth.

Legal:

We have actively pursued our legal options and reviewed the various types of litigation available to organizations and private citizens. Two lawyers with extensive airport litigation experience have been interviewed. One is currently fighting a huge expansion of thc South Lake Tahoe air port. The other was instrumental in winning a model airport use agreement from John Wayne International in Orange County. Slay tuned for more developments here.

Results: