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HomeMy WebLinkAboutResolution 434 RESOLUTION FILE NO. �3 1 A RES O L U T I ON WHEREAS, the Civil Aeronautics Board instituted an investi- gation under Docket No. 13959 on August 20, 1962, known as the "Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport Investigation, " to determine whether the Certificates of all air carriers should be amended in such manner as to require that they serve the Cities of Fort Worth and Dallas through a single airport; and, WHEREAS, after the holding of widely publicized and well attended public hearings and the presentation of evidence by all parties and a full and complete investigation extending over two years, the Civil Aeronautics Board on September 30, 1964, in its Order No. E-21341 unanimously determined that service to Dallas and Fort Worth should be required through a single airport; and, WHEREAS, pursuant to the orders entered in that hearing and the ultimatums expressed by the Civil Aeronautics Board, the Cities of Fort Worth and Dallas on September 27, 1965, signed a contract providing for the interim steps to be taken toward the construction of a Regional Airport, with the thought in mind that there should be created a separate governmental entity in Tarrant and Dallas Counties known as the North Central Texas Airport Authority, but as the result of elections held in each of said Counties on June 6, 1967, such Authority was not favorably voted by the voters of Dallas County; and, WHEREAS, further intensive studies of the airport problems of the Cities of Fort Worth and Dallas resulted in joint determi- nation by the City Councils of the two Cities that the commercial aviation and airport facilities of the Cities, specifically Love Field and Greater Southwest International Airport, were wholly inadequate to meet the foreseeable commercial aviation needs of the citizens of the Cities and the residents and citizens of the entire North Central Texas Region; and, WHEREAS, the two Cities further found and determined that the most effective, economic and efficient means of providing needed airport facilities would be the construction and equipping of a centrally located airport for the Cities; and to that end, on April 15, 1968, the Cities by a Contract and Agreement established the Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport Board as a joint administra- tive arm of the Cities to provide for the construction and operation of an airport to be known as the Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport; and, WHEREAS, it was a requirement of the Contract and Agreement that the Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport Board initially prepare and submit to the respective City Councils for approval, an Over-All Preliminary Plan for the financing, construction and operation of the Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport; and, WHEREAS, the Fort Worth City Council on September 30 , 1968, and the Dallas City Council on October 7, 1968, adopted resolutions approving the Over-All Preliminary Plan; and, WHEREAS, it was a specific finding of the Over-All Preliminary Plan that the practicality and the economic feasibility of the financing and construction of the Regional Airport depended upon a transfer of the interim commercial air carrier uses of Love Field and Greater Southwest International Airport to the Regional Airport Upon its completion and that the Regional Airport could'not be financed as a self-sustaining, self-supporting project without the revenues generated from these sources; and, WHEREAS, upon findings of imperative and paramount public -2- need and necessity, the Cities of Fort Worth and Dallas proceeded to assume General Obligations of some Sixty Million Dollars for the purchase of land and jointly issued Four Hundred and Forty Million Dollars worth of Revenue Bonds for the construction of the Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport, which was completed and commenced operation on January 13, 1974; and, WHEREAS, in connection with the issuance of the Revenue Bonds for the Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport, the two Cities of Fort worth and Dallas, by and through their respective City Councils, passed the 1968 Regional Airport Concurrent Bond Ordi- nance, effective November 12, 1968, being City of Fort Worth Ordinance No. 6021 and City of Dallas Ordinance No. 12352, and the cities did in said ordinance acknowledge their mutual under- standing that in Love Field, Redbird, GSIA and Meacham Field, they owned and operated airports which by their nature are potentially competitive with the operation of the Regional Airport, and the Cities mutually promised to provide for the orderly, efficient and effective phase-out at Love Field, Redbird, GSIA and Meacham Field of any and all Certificated Air Carrier Services and to transfer such activities to the Regional Airport effective upon the beginning of operations at the Regional Airport; and, WHEREAS, as a specific promise and obligation to the pur- chasers of such bonds, the Cities further agreed in said ordinance that neither the Cities of Dallas and Fort Worth nor their Regional Airport Board would undertake, with regard to the Regional Airport, Love Field, GSIA, Meacham Field or Redbird, any action, implement any policy or enter into any agreement or contract which by its or their nature would be competitive with or in opposition to the optimum development of the Regional Airport and the use of its lands and facilities at the earliest practicable date; and, -3- WHEREAS, the Cities of Dallas and Fort Worth further promised in said 1968 Ordinance that aircraft uses at GSIA would not be permitted after the Regional Airport became operational and that except for promotion and full develop- ment of the operation of reasonable aircraft uses at Love Field, Redbird and Meacham Field other than Certificated Air Carrier Services, none of the airports of the Cities would be put to or developed for any use which by the nature thereof would impair, diminish, reduce or destroy the optimum use and development of the Regional Airport, including its air and land space, at the earliest practicable date; and, WHEREAS, consistent with all of the foregoing, all of the Certificated Air Carriers who had theretofore obtained long-term lease rights at Love Field (which would extend beyond the prospective opening of the Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport) , to wit, Braniff, American, Texas International,Delta, Continental, Eastern, Frontier and Ozark Airlines, did on February 9, 1970, execute Letters of Agreement wherein all covenanted and agreed to move all of their "Certificated Air Carrier Services serving the Dallas-Fort Worth area" to the new Regional Airport and thereafter to "conduct such services to, from and at the Airport to the extent required under the terms of the 1968 Regional Airport Concurrent Bond Ordinance," and such actions effectively provided for the phase-out of all such activities at Love Field upon the opening of the Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport, notwithstanding the previous lease rights to the contrary; and, WHEREAS, the foregoing determinations of the City Councils of the Cities of Fort Worth and Dallas of the necessity to provide -4- the Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport as the single airport for all Certificated Air Carrier Services, to limit Love Field, Redbird and Meacham Field to the function of serving all other civil avia- tion needs of the public and to close GSIA have become known as the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport System Plan; and, WHEREAS, as a part of the National Airport System Plan, the Cities of Fort Worth and Dallas have accepted over Sixty Million Dollars of Federal aid to accomplish the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport System Plan described in the preceding paragraphs, but have neither applied for nor received any State aid in effecting said Plan; and, WHEREAS,Southwest Airlines Company, although owning no lease rights to continue its Certificated Air Carrier Services at Love Field after the opening of the Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport, has consistently refused to recognize the obligations of the Cities of Dallas and Fort Worth to operate all of their airports under the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport System Plan, despite the fact that it commenced its operations at Love Field in June of 1971, several years after the aforesaid commitments of the Cities to the Plan; and, WHEREAS, the Texas Aeronautics Commission aided and abetted Southwest's intransigence by adopting Minute Order No. 22 on November 12, 1971, which directed all TAC certificated airlines not to change the airports from which they were then conducting their intrastate service unless they first obtained TAC written approval to do so; and WHEREAS, as the result of the announced intentions- of Southwest Airlines Company to continue to operate Certificated Air Carrier Services at Love Field without leases or contracts from the City of Dallas providing for such rights after the J opening of the Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport, the Cities -5- of Dallas and Fort Worth, together with the Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport Board, filed Cause No. CA-3-5927-C in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, to declare the obligation of Southwest Airlines Company to cease and desist from its intended unilateral use of the facilities at Dallas Love Field; and, WHEREAS, the Court, after hearing the evidence and considering the pleadings in said cause, interpreted the 1968 Concurrent Bond Ordinance to be discriminatory against Southwest Airlines because it did not appear to specifically require the removal of the intrastate services of the eight CAB carriers signing the Letter of Agreement to the Regional Airport Board and, further, held that in view of Section V of Article XI of the Constitution of the State of Texas, Article 46d-7, R.C.S . and T.A.C. Minute Order No. 22, the Cities could not force the intra-state carrier, Southwest, to move without intruding on the jurisdiction of the Texas Aeronautics Commission; and WHEREAS, it being the intent of the Cities of Dallas and Fort Worth that all of the scheduled services of all air carriers carrying persons or property for hire should be covered by the Bond Ordinance and the Court's interpretation being contrary to the intent of the two City Councils, it was the desire of the City Council of the City of Fort Worth that that portion of the services of those airlines not covered under the 1968 Concurrent Bond Ordinance, as interpreted by the Court, should be included and covered as are all other air carriers in order that there may be no alleged discrimination against any of the scheduled air carriers; and, WHEREAS, in recognition of all of the foregoing, the City Council of the City of Fort Worth did find on April 15, 1974, that -6- there existed an urgent public necessity for immediate, affirma- tive action calculated to preserve, protect and defend the investment of the citizens of the City of Fort Worth in providing new facilities for the conduct of non-exclusive and non-discrimina- tory commercial aviation services for the North Central Region of Texas and did on that date adopt Ordinance No. 6983 closing Fort Worth's Meacham Field to all regularly scheduled aircraft that transport passengers or property for hire except for such aircraft that might operate between Meacham Field and the Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport; and Y WHEREAS, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, has enjoined enforcement of a similar ordinance adopted by the City of Dallas with respect to Love Field, premised upon the finding, at least in part, that Article 46d-7, R.C.S. limits a city's regulation of its own airports to the extent that it may adopt "No ordinance *** inconsistent with *** laws of this State, or ***regulations promulgated or standards established pursuant thereto.", specifically finding T.A.C. Minute Order No. 22 contrary to the purposes and intent of such ordinance and such ordinance an intrusion upon the alleged jurisdiction of the Texas Aeronautics Commission; and WHEREAS, there has been introduced H.B. 1716 in the Texas Legislature by Representatives Leonard Briscoe and "Gib" Lewis to amend Article 46d-7, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes by adding a Subsection (c) to read: "(c) Municipalities Owning Two or More Airports. A municipality having ownership interest in two or more airports or air navigation facilities may classify air carrier service to those airports or air naviga- tion facilities, and may designate the classification - of service, including certificated air carrier service, that may be conducted at each airport or facility."= and -7- WHEREAS, H.B. 1716 seeks to clearly and unequivocally announce as the intent of the Legislature of the State of Texas that the management, government and use of airports and air navigation facilities owned by municipalities is and should be within the province and jurisdiction of the owning municipalities and not the Texas Aeronautics Commission; and WHEREAS, the purposes of H. B. 1716 are entirely consistent with the position of the City of Fort Worth in its support for and participation in the planning, financing, construction and operation of the Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport; NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the City of Fort Worth supports the purpose and intent of House Bill 1716, a bill to clarify by specifying the authority of cities having an ownership interest in two or more airports to regulate the use of such airports. APPROVED AS TO FORM AND LEGALITY: /• 6 rr4410-0�o S. G. JOHNDROE, JR. City Attorney -8-