There is no negative impact on the General Fund. The total cost of the project will be approximately $23,000,000. This amount will be fully funded as follows: 90% ($20,700,000) by the FAA, 4.5% ($150,000 maximum or .72%) by Caltrans, and 5.5% ($2,150,000 or 9.28%) by the Airport Enterprise Fund.
Buchanan Field Airport is an important regional transportation asset for the greater San Francisco and East Bay area of Northern California. Buchanan Field is a commercial service, reliever airport for the two nearby large and medium hub commercial airports: San Francisco and Oakland International Airports respectively. Further, Buchanan Field is one of the busiest general aviation airports in the United States and currently has over 400 based aircraft, including 22 jets, plus over 39 businesses. In the 2012 FAA report entitled General Aviation Airports: A National Asset Study, Buchanan Field was ranked as one of the 84 most significant airports in the United States, out of more than 2,952 general aviation facilities.
Although the current air traffic control tower (ATCT) was paid for by federal money when it was constructed 60 years ago and is staffed by federal employees, the ATCT is, in fact, owned by Contra Costa County.
The County has had a long-term successful partnership with the FAA to leverage the federal, state and local funds necessary to maintain the 73-year-old Airport infrastructure. The ATCT, however, is over 60 years old and there is insufficient local funding to bring the facility up to current federal standards (such as seismic, Architectural Barriers Act Accessibility Standards, and ADA/OSHA) and/or to perform major system or structural upgrades (such as a new roof and siding, plumbing, HVAC system, and the like).
As such, the ATCT is at the end of its useful life and needs to be replaced for the health and safety of the FAA employees and the Airport users. This project would further public safety and the public benefit by relocating the ATCT to a different location on the Airport which offers better visibility of the four runways and associated taxiways.
The FAA grant funding would be used to design, perform the environmental analysis and construct a new Air Traffic Control Tower at Buchanan Field. The FAA typically funds 90% of the cost of the project, the balance of the cost will be paid for through a combination of grant funding from Caltrans (in the amount of $150,000) and capital reserves from the Airport Enterprise Fund (in the amount of $2,150,000).
The County will not receive the FAA and Caltrans Grant funding necessary to replace the Air Traffic Control Tower at Buchanan Field, which will result in the project not being completed.