Tuesday, November 18, 2008

By ADAM ASHTON
aashton@modbee.com

last updated: September 12, 2008 01:17:44 PM

A company that wants to challenge the sole fuel provider at the Modesto Airport found its plans sidelined with little explanation this summer when City Hall changed course and began demanding more rigorous environmental reviews.

Richard Corbett, owner of the Modesto Flight Center, views the city's about-face as an attempt to protect his would-be competitor, Sky Trek Aviation. The extra study likely will cost him thousands of dollars even if it determines he doesn't have to go through with a full environmental impact report.

"This is as bad as it gets," said Charles Brunn, Corbett's attorney. "They're running my client out of business."

Modesto City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood said that's not the case.

She said city employees believed Corbett's proposal would be exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act but realized it might require a higher level of scrutiny just before Corbett was scheduled to appear before the City Council in July.

"Sometimes, we catch things and then we have to say, 'Let's make sure it's done right,' " Wood said.

Corbett is skeptical, especially because his bid cleared several hurdles:

• In February, when Modesto's Airport Advisory Committee sanctioned his request.

• In May, when the Federal Aviation Administration indicated it supported the proposal.

• And in June, when three council members on the city's Economic Development Committee advanced Corbett's plan, and when city planner Brad Wall wrote a letter to Corbett saying the proposal wouldn't need to undergo an environmental impact report.

"I don't feel I am being treated right," Corbett said.

Corbett traces the city's turn to a June 30 letter a Sky Trek attorney sent to the city. Sky Trek argued Corbett's bid wouldn't be "viable in today's market," would benefit from a preferable location that's prohibited in Modesto's airport master plan and defy the state environmental law.

"We don't have the right to have a monopoly on this airport, and we know that," Sky Trek operations manager Penny Webber said. "But we want it to be a fair and equitable playing ground."

Her company has been the airport's only fuel provider for 18 years.

That status is at the heart of one of Corbett's complaints against the city. By law, Modesto can't block competition at the airport because it receives federal grants. Corbett called the FAA to look into the fuel contracts.

Wood said the city is prepared to demonstrate it's not acting to protect a monopoly.

"We're 100 percent aware that we have to allow competition," she said. "There's no way we can say 'no.' "

She said Sky Trek's June 30 letter wasn't the only factor that persuaded her office to require that Corbett hire a consultant to investigate whether he'd have to do a more thorough environmental study. She said the attorney's office was leaning that way before it received the letter.

Corbett bought the Modesto Flight Center in August 2007 from one of its founders, Larry Askew. The company has a 25-year history in the city of training pilots.

Corbett has tried to expand the company's services.

Charlene Fulton, president of the Modesto Airport Pilots Association, likes what Corbett has done. She supports his effort to bring a new fuel facility to the airport, contending that competition would lower prices and persuade pilots to fuel in Modesto.

"There's no reason for this issue, but we're all doing everything we can," said Fulton, who has worked for Brunn as a legal assistant.

Modesto philanthropist John Rogers owns Sky Trek Aviation. He also sits on the Airport Advisory Committee but stepped down from a vote on whether to recommend Corbett's proposal.

His company missed its chance to air its concerns in public at the June Economic Development Committee meeting because its consultant arrived a few minutes late.

That narrowed Sky Trek's window to raise its concerns to just before the July council meeting, when Corbett was supposed to appear before the council.

Bee staff writer Adam Ashton can be reached at aashton@modbee.com or 578-2366.

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