VERO BEACH — Growing interest from major airlines and expansion of thVero Beach Regional Airport has prompted city leaders to consider how the facility should evolve, as residents raise questions about its long-term direction.
In recent years, carriers including JetBlue and American Airlines have begun operating at the airport, bringing increased attention to the once-quiet regional hub. The changes have also sparked concerns among residents about potential expansion and its impact.
Councilmember John Carroll said many of those concerns have yet to be fully addressed in public discussions.
"What's going to happen to our airport? Are we going to be big? Are we going to be small? Are we going to get rid of the carriers because they hate the noise? I'm sure fellow council members and the mayor and vice mayor have the same reaction. I mean, some of those questions we haven't ever discussed on the dais, maybe touched on them, but we haven't made any major decisions in regards to the expansion of the airport," he said.
Carroll suggested the city create more opportunities for public involvement as it considers long-term planning, pointing to several priorities already identified but not fully explored.
"The leading bullet point is preserve space for terminal building expansion. Second bullet point, add auto parking. Third, improve pedestrian access. Two and three of those we've been processing over the last several months, but we actually haven't even talked about preserving space for the terminal. So there's a lot of things that we're trying to do over the next 30 years," he said. "I think that if we would have a joint meeting with the council and the airport commission that we could discuss some of those major projects that are listed on our upcoming five-year plans."
Mayor John Cotugno said the city’s current comprehensive planning did not anticipate the airport’s recent growth, noting how quickly circumstances have changed.
"When we started this one, I don't even think we had an airline and you know we were thinking about we're a poor neglected regional airport and no one will ever show up. Boy were we wrong," he said.
Cotugno expressed support for engaging the public more directly, including hosting a community workshop where residents could review potential development scenarios.
"If we're hearing comments from the community, then maybe it's time to help guide the airport team for a charette at the community center where we invite the community to come in and taking a page out of our county's playbook is to have renditions of what we believe the airport will kind of look like. If it just stays one way, it goes to a different phase or it goes to the max phase and have people look at this and make their comments," he said.
Councilmember Aaron Vos also proposed gathering feedback through an online survey to reach residents ahead of any in-person discussions.
"The questions would be what would you like the airport to be and specific to your if you're a resident, a true resident, county or an adjacent area," he said.
City Manager Monty Falls said he supports the idea of public engagement but wants to coordinate with airport leadership before moving forward.
"If we're interested in putting together a charette process, I would say I need to sit down with Todd and his team and come up with what we can put together and what we can try to glean from this meeting. I think it needs to be more narrowly focused and broad," he said.
The City Council agreed to pursue the concept, with staff expected to return at a future meeting with a proposed timeline for gathering public input on the airport’s future.