I guess that old heliport has been gone since '99.
From The Globe:
Flaherty tries to drum up noise on heliport
Says BRA favoring wealthy over residents
By Stephanie Ebbert Globe Staff / June 7, 2008
Councilor Michael Flaherty is trying to stir up an old-school South Boston battle against city planners, who invited companies to develop plans for a heliport on the waterfront before holding public meetings on it.
Flaherty - who has mayoral aspirations - has organized a community meeting on Monday night at the James F. Condon Elementary School, where neighborhood residents are expected to pepper Boston Redevelopment Authority officials with questions about helicopters hovering over their neighborhood. Flaherty contends the agency is trying to meet the needs of corporate travelers at the expense of neighborhood residents.
"The only special interest should be the public's interest," he said. "Instead of rolling out the red carpet for the wealthy and the elite, we should be rolling out the welcome mat for all Bostonians."
But BRA officials said they will have few answers to offer on Monday night because the politicians are jumping the gun. They protested that they had every intention of launching an open community process - once they had identified a company that could develop a feasible plan to present to the public. Though the agency's planning director will attend the meeting on Monday night, he will not be able to answer the inevitable questions, such as how many trips the heliport would be expected to generate daily.
That information will be provided by the company after it is formally selected. Though the BRA has identified its favored candidate, Air Pegasus, the company has to lay out specific plans for how it would operate a heliport there.
Air Pegasus' New York City heliport, which has operated at 30th Street since 1980, is one of the busiest urban heliports in the world, offering service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the company said in its filing with the BRA.
In a brief phone interview, Steven L. Trenk, manager of Air Pegasus, said he also envisions running a sightseeing service from a South Boston heliport.
"I think there's significant demand. We're very excited about creating a world-class heliport there," Trenk said. "We're hopeful that we're going to be able to service the business community and tourism."
BRA officials say that there was once a heliport in South Boston, but it closed to make way for the construction of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.
"Since 1999, when we lost the heliport, it's something we have been studying to see if there's a need for the heliport and looking for a way to bring it back," said Jessica Shumaker, a spokeswoman for the BRA.
The proposed location for the heliport is off Summer Street in the 191-acre Marine Industrial Park, which is owned by an arm of the BRA and hosts seafood processing operations, the corporate headquarters of Legal Sea Foods, and dry dock facilities.
The BRA said business leaders have been asking for a heliport to secure more convenient travel in and out of the waterfront, which is home to many corporate headquarters and offices and has millions more square feet of office and retail space on the drawing boards. But the BRA maintained that the heliport would serve a public interest as well.
"I don't know whose special interests he's referring to," said Kairos Shen, the BRA's director of planning, regarding Flaherty's charges. "We all indirectly benefit from the ability for us to have Medflights. I think we all appreciate the fact that the helicopters that cover traffic give us information that's all useful."
Massachusetts has 90 helipads, including 18 at hospitals, where helicopters can land, according to the Massachusetts Aeronautical Commission. The state has 10 heliports, including one at Boston Medical Center, where helicopters can refuel or receive maintenance. One is at Logan International Airport, but only five helicopters a week land there, airport officials said. Heliport proponents say it would be more convenient to land in the Seaport, bypassing Logan's air traffic restrictions and refueling delays.
A South Boston heliport would allow helicopters to stop and refuel near the center of action and to transport business executives who do not want to tangle with traveling in and out of Logan.
State Senator Jack Hart, a South Boston Democrat, said he has not heard of any demand from businesses or developers for a heliport, but would listen to the BRA's presentation.
"I don't dismiss anything out of hand but I have grave concerns about something like this going in down there without a process," he said, "and the concept of expanding Logan Airport over to the South Boston waterfront."
Michael Tyrrell of the Fort Point Neighborhood Association said he is reserving judgment until hearing the plans Monday, but he suspects there would be better locations, farther from developed neighborhoods. "We already have enough aircraft buzzing the neighborhood at the crack of dawn. It's a quality of life issue," Tyrrell said. "If they're proposing to put a helipad that's a stone's throw from residential enclaves, I think they ought to reexamine that. Why not at the tip of the pier?"
LINK
