Erie Airport Authority urged to settle Wilkins Road property lawsuit
A Wilkins Road resident asked the Erie Regional Airport Authority on Wednesday to settle a lawsuit filed by a local developer.
The airport last year agreed to sell a 20.6-acre property on Wilkins Road in Millcreek to NLA IV Real Estate Holdings, which planned to build six duplexes and 116 six-unit townhomes on the land. The sale didn’t go through, and NLA filed a lawsuit in the Erie County Court of Common Pleas on May 26 asking a judge to order the Airport Authority to proceed with the sale or, alternately, to pay more than $50,000 already spent on engineering, permit fees and other development costs, plus costs still being incurred.
Developer sues Airport Authority:For failing to sell Wilkins Road property as agreed
Paying the developer’s costs will ensure that the development is not built, said Annette Mossburg, a Wilkins Road resident who opposes the planned development.
“Pay the man his $50,000 and put this behind us. We’ve been dealing with this for two years,” said Mossburg, who addressed the Airport Authority on behalf of Wilkins Road area residents. “Remove the property from the market and keep it as airport property.”
The airport offered the Wilkins Road property for sale in spring 2020 and agreed to sell it to NLA for $400,000 in May 2021.
In November:Court may determine if Wilkins Road development will be built near airport
Wilkins Road residents contacted the Federal Aviation Administration, whose 2014 guidelines for the property prescribed that “it must not be used for residential purposes.”
Millcreek neighborhood asks FAA help:To stop multifamily development proposed near Erie airport
The FAA notified the Airport Authority in July 2021 that residential development of the property is “unacceptable.” The authority subsequently notified the developer that it cannot proceed with the property sale.
The fight against the planned development has been a two-year burden for Wilkins Road neighbors, Mossburg said, in emotional stress, research and meeting time, and energy.
“I ask you to pass a resolution that this will not happen again,” Mossburg told authority members during their monthly business meeting Wednesday.
Millcreek Planning Commission:Rezoning Wilkins Road parcel for townhomes not recommended
The FAA spent $1 million in 2001 to remove a mobile home park from the Wilkins Road property, which then was located in the airport noise abatement area. The federal grant also paid to relocate residents.
The property no longer is considered to be in the noise abatement area, but circumstances could change and the airport once again could be forced to remove a residential development, Rick Harner, manager of FAA’s airports district office in Harrisburg, said in his July notification to the Airport Authority.
” … since FAA has already funded the acquisition of this land for noise compatibility purposes, we find the possibility that ERAA may have to once again displace a residential community in this location to be contrary to the original intent of the federal grant, and therefore unacceptable,” Harner said.
Contact Valerie Myers at vmyers@timesnews.com. Follow her on Twitter @ETNmyers.
