The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors recently voted to begin streamlining county government as it relates to the operation of its two airports.

Legislation authored by Supervisor Mark DeSaulnier and supported by Supervisor Mary Piepho will now permit the director of Byron and Buchanan airports to work directly with the county's chief administrator rather than through the Public Works Department and East County Regional Planning Commission (ECRPC).

This policy change will give the director of airports more authority to conduct day-to-day business for Contra Costa County's airports.

"We (BMAC) were in favor of having the airport have more control over airport-related things, like building hangars," said Byron Municipal Advisory Council (BMAC) member Kathy Leighton.

But Leighton also said that BMAC wants decisions relating to items that fall outside the scope of aviation and aviation-related development "to go through the regular channels (previously adopted approval process)."

ECRPC is one of those approval layers, and while the commission supported the new legislation 3-1, the sole dissenting vote was that of chairman Walter MacVittie, who has some concerns with streamlining the approval process.

"The issue that really concerned me the most was the issue of land use," said MacVittie.

"Based on my years (eight-plus) of sitting on that commission (ECRPC)," MacVittie said, "when the community has a problem with what a developer has proposed, we (ECRPC) take the airport into consideration as well as the areas surrounding it."

He is not convinced that the airport commission will do the same.

It might take three to six months for ECRPC to resolve land-use issues involving the airport, said MacVittie. But "our past history has shown that we've done a good job with that."

Airport Director Keith Freitas said Monday that by the end of this week he'll have a better idea of exactly how this move by the supervisors will aid his department in expediting matters.

Over the next few days, he said that he'll be meeting with the chief administrator to "talk about what that means and how that will be organized."

"While the Byron Airport and surrounding communities are at their infancy of economic development," said Piepho, "it is vital and necessary for the county to support that opportunity."

Byron and Buchanan airports have a significant amount of real property that could be developed for aviation and aviation-related needs. The supervisors hope that putting this new legislation into place will enable the airport director to leverage these important assets and encourage business growth and new construction.

"Both the Buchanan and Byron Airports provide a very important public service," Piepho said. "Exploring those service levels to their highest potential will service both the local airport communities and the county at large."