As Santa Clara County explores the possible closure of Reid-Hillview Airport, a San Jose resident has filed a lawsuit in an effort to block the county from studying other uses for the site and force it to accept federal funds to improve airfields.
The 180-acre airport in East San Jose was built in 1939 and purchased by the county in 1961. But as homes later were built closer and closer to the small airport, residents began calling for its closure, citing noise, lead pollution from fuel and the need for additional housing in the region.
County supervisors heeded those calls last December when a majority of them voted to stop accepting new federal grants for the airport, which county officials say opens the possibility for the airport’s closure as soon as 2031. They have also paid a consultant to begin studying alternate uses for the property.
The lawsuit, filed last Thursday, argues the county is obligated to operate the airport “in perpetuity” as a result of accepting various federal grants over the years.
“They are bound to keep that open as an airport…that was the condition of accepting all this [grant] money over the years,” attorney Jim McManis, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of San Jose resident Christine Decker, said Monday. “So letting it get run down, and being careless with the maintenance…it should be a proper airport that is safe and usable, and they’re not keeping it up.”
The county has violated federal grant requirements by failing to adequately maintain the airport and its facilities, the lawsuit alleges.
County Counsel James Williams, in a phone interview Monday, called the lawsuit “merit-less” and noted that supervisors have not taken any official action to close the airport.
Williams criticized one of the lawsuit’s requests— that the court block the county from “taking any action to implement or carry out studies of alternate uses” for Reid-Hillview.
“It’s a regrettable example of trying to use the court system to shortcut and circumvent actual thoughtful discussion and decision-making,” Williams said.
He said McManis is “just wrong” in his argument that the county must maintain the property as an airport in perpetuity.
“We’ve looked into all of those issues…and feel comfortable there is a pathway to closure,” Williams said. “But that’s a policy decision that hasn’t even been made yet, and to say ‘you can’t even look at the issue’ is an abuse of process.”
The lawsuit comes weeks after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), in a letter to the county, said it “strongly opposes” closing the airport and warned the county to fix outdated signage and other issues that it warned “could result in a potentially catastrophic incident.”
The FAA letter attributed an uptick in runway incursions — unauthorized aircraft or vehicles on runways — to signs and markers that are supposed to guide pilots, but don’t meet current standards.
Earlier this month, the county Airport Commission said it shares the FAA’s concerns and urged the county to take federal grants “to ensure that Reid-Hillview Airport is brought up to full National Safety Standards,” according to a letter by commission chairman John Carr.
The lawsuit echoes many of those concerns — citing both the FAA and Airport Commission letters — and noted that Reid Hillview is a reliever airport for Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International and often hosts disaster relief operations, most recently for the Carr, Mendocino and Butte County fires in 2018.
County Roads and Airports director Harry Freitas declined to comment on the lawsuit, but in a letter to the FAA in November, he said the county disagrees that its airfields are in poor condition and has been working to upgrade conditions there.
The county finished a repaving project at Reid Hillview earlier this year, funded by a loan from the county general fund, and has made a number of changes to signage at the airport over the years, according to Freitas’ letter.
Although the distances between runways and taxiways at Reid Hillview don’t meet current FAA standards, “older airports often do not meet current design standards in a number of respects and yet are considered safe,” Freitas wrote.
He also said there’s no proof the increased runway incursions are linked to signage.
“We take [safety] very seriously as the owner of the airport,” Freitas said at a meeting of the county’s Housing, Land Use, Environment and Transportation Committee last week.
The county recently hired a consultant to look at electrical systems for the airport signage and is working on a budget proposal for airport improvements to present next year.
“The FAA is more than happy to tell us what to do, but they’re not interested in taking any liability,” Freitas said.
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