Naples City Council agreed the Naples Airport Authority should continue its exploratory study of other possible airport locations as due diligence, but not necessarily plan to move the airport. As both sides neared the end of a marathon eight-hour joint workshop on Nov. 7 without focusing on why the meeting was requested, City Attorney Matthew McConnell pressed Council to give the NAA an answer on wheth-er it should continue with its $398,000 exploratory study, which identified four possible sites to move the airport in eastern Collier County. NAA Chair Rick Ruppert said the organization needed to know Council’s position to determine its next steps at its Nov. 21 meeting. Council and the NAA agreed they need to fix noise and pollution problems that prompted the request for an exploratory study to seek alternate airport sites. After much discussion, Council informally agreed 4-3 the study should continue. Vice Mayor Terry Hutchison explained the need to complete due diligence. “Let’s get this done,” Hutchison said. “No- body’s saying we’re going to move the airport. We just need to complete our due diligence while we concurrently look for ‘solves’ on the primary issues that our residents have brought forward today.” Council members Ray Christman, Berne Barton and Bill Kramer adamantly opposed that stance, with Christman noting 12 people on the dais won’t solve the complaints. A coalition of airport business owners is needed to speak to elected officials about changes that are good for the community. “That would … make the difference,” Christman said. “The folks who would be most likely to have the ear of those elected officials would be many of the folks in the business community, the aviation business community.” Mayor Teresa Heitmann noted residents were upset when JSX moved to the airport after residents asked to stop growth. JSX, which begins service Nov. 21, will offer flights to New York and New Jersey five days weekly. “The reason people said move the airport was because we were getting no relief in flights,” Heitmann said. “We got triple the flights.” The 81-year-old Naples Airport, which began as a military airfield, is located on roughly one square mile on Airport-Pulling Road. It’s self-sustaining, uses no taxpayer money and leases most of its 733 acres from Naples for $1 yearly. According to the Florida Department of Transportation, it generates $781 million annually for the area. Under an interlocal agreement, the NAA pays the city roughly $2 million to provide services at the airport, including police, fire, emergency services and utilities. The NAA has spent years improving and monitoring noise and rewards pilots for adhering to Fly Safe, Fly Quiet voluntary 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfews. It continues to make improvements, including offering discounted unleaded fuel and banning Stage-2 jets (Stage-4 are the quietest). But after years of noise complaints by neighbors and residents under flight paths, Council requested the NAA study a pos...