It might not sound like much, but 8 feet is a big deal to attorney Alexander Henson.
That's the distance by which the Monterey Peninsula Airport has agreed to shorten its planned runway extension in a settlement agreement approved Wednesday with the Highway 68 Coalition, which Henson represents.
"It'll be a smaller project," Henson says.
The coalition, a land use watchdog group, sued the airport in 2011 over its $42 million safety improvement plan. In large part, the project is designed to comply with Federal Aviation Administration regulations that require runway improvements, namely a high-friction engineered material arresting system (EMAS), or cushiony surface to catch runaway planes in the event that they zoom past the edge of the runway.
The airport's original project called for four structures: EMAS on each side of one runway, a 50-foot-wide access road that opened onto Highway 68, and an 80-foot retaining wall comprised of 10 terraced panels.
Under the terms of the settlement, the road won't connect directly to 68, and it will be narrowed to 10 feet.
The airport is also required to pay attorney fees, which are still being calculated but will likely top $1 million.
The agreement comes after the airport produced a second version of the project, which the coalition also objected to.
The lawsuit focused on the environmental impact report, and Monterey County Superior Court Judge Lydia Villarreal agreed with the coalition that airport officials had to more thoroughly account for the impacts of the project.
"This is a classic example of how [the California Environmental Quality Act] is supposed to work," Henson says.
Airport board member Mary Ann Leffel disagrees. "I think the whole community lost," she says.
"If you want the airport to continue to have flights that can take you out of here direct so you don't have to take the 19-passenger plane to San Francisco all the time, we've got to have a longer runway.
"There's the sense that somewhere along the line, someone's going to say, 'We want to fly direct to New York for you but gosh, we can't.'"
The FAA safety compliance deadline is Dec. 31, 2015. Villarreal had halted construction during the court proceedings.
Leffel says she's not sure when construction on the scaled-back version of the project will resume, but the airport is first seeking the FAA's blessing before breaking ground again.