Helsinki extends building moratorium on Malmi Airport site

Ban on development put in place for a fifth time

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By Jorma Erkkilä
     
      Supporters of Malmi Airport had reason to take comfort in the latest round of their long-running battle to keep the facility - once the capital's main air traffic hub - open in the face of attempts to develop the area for residential building.
      On Monday, the Helsinki City Board made a decision on the extension of the building moratorium on the Malmi Airport site as well as the park area south and west of the airport.
      This was already the fifth time for the City Board to extend the building prohibition. The previous ban was to end next month, while the new one will be valid until April 23rd 2013.
     
The aim is to draft a component master plan for the Malmi Airport and its surroundings, preparations for which were started already some ten years ago.
      The airport is on a site rented by the state from the City of Helsinki.
      However, the state has agreed to terminate the lease, provided that Helsinki will draw up zoning plans for a new residential area in Malmi.
      In addition, the City will have to find another airport to replace Malmi, which is now being used only by light aircraft and helicopters.
     
The Ministry of Transport and Communications suggested last June that a solution to the often rather attritional matter should be reached in connection with the updating of the provincial land use plans that is to begin in 2014.
      The work will last for many years, which is why light aircraft may continue to fly at Malmi until into the 2020s.
     
The closing down of the Malmi Airport has been discussed for many years, but finding another airport to replace Malmi is tricky, to say the least.
      The neighbouring municipalities regard the plan to build a new airport on their turf with some disfavour, as it is a financial risk, causing noise and taking up potential residential land.
      One option has been to build a new airport in the Backas area in Porvoo, about 50 kilometres from the centre of Helsinki.
      However, in Porvoo itself the idea has been vehemently opposed.
     
According to a poll commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat, more than half of the Helsinki residents would maintain the airport in its present use.
      The survey was conducted by TNS Gallup at the beginning of the current year. One-third of respondents supported the idea of turning the historic Malmi Airport (the milieu, dating originally from 1936, has even been selected to the worldwide List of 100 Most Endangered Cultural Sites by the World Monuments Fund) into a residential district.
     
To a certain extent, Malmi Airport's future prospects brightened with the annexation of land in Sipoo by Helsinki some while back: the city still has a clear and present need for land for residential development, but the pressure on Malmi has relaxed somewhat.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 28.3.2011


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Proposal for new airport in Porvoo to replace Malmi facility (17.8.2007)
  Lohja eager to offer replacement for Helsinki-Malmi Airport (21.5.2008)
  Pressure easing on conversion of Malmi Airport and Santahamina Jaeger Garrison into residential districts (23.2.2011)
  Decision on fate of Helsinki´s Malmi Airport to be postponed well into the future (8.6.2010)

See also:
  Friends of Malmi Airport celebrate 70th birthday of Helsinki´s first airport in bittersweet atmosphere (16.5.2008)
  Helsinki to evict planes from Malmi Airport (9.12.2004)

Links:
  Helsinki-Malmi Airport (Finavia)
  The Friends of Malmi Airport Society (FoMA)
  Malmi Airport (Wikipedia)

JORMA ERKKILÄ / Helsingin Sanomat
jorma.erkkila@hs.fi