WESTMINSTER, Md. (Map, News) - Residents opposed to the lengthening of the runway at the Carroll County Regional Airport said they were disappointed by their meeting with county commissioners Thursday.

“Are you going to answer our questions?” Cheri Grubby asked Commissioners Julia Gouge and Michael Zimmer during the meeting. Commissioner Dean Minnich was on vacation.

“I think you’ve already answered your questions,” Zimmer responded.

Grubby is the co-chair of the Carroll Joint Neighborhood Association, a residents group formed last year to oppose the expansion of the airport in Westminster.

She, fellow co-chair Ron Buczkowski and another resident, Tad Rau, asked to meet with commissioners to air concerns about the project’s cost and impact on traffic and property values. Commissioners expect to vote on the issue Tuesday.

Rau presented a nine-page letter that included an excerpt from the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics that said that after an expansion was announced at the international airport in Greensboro, N.C., housing prices dropped 9.2 percent within a 2.5-mile radius and 5.7 percent within the next 1.5-mile radius.

Buczkowski said economist Anirban Basu, a county-hired consultant, recommended that residents be compensated for lower property values and soundproofing.

But Basu said Thursday that he suggested that the county pay for soundproofing only because the “literature on airports’ effect on property values is ambiguous.”

The airport, which caters to private and corporate jets, caught the attention of the Federal Aviation Administration as a safe airport that the federal government has deemed worthy of receiving funding for an expansion, Gouge said.

The county also needs to enlarge its commercial and industrial tax base, she said.

“Everyone keeps saying we’re going to destroy this county,” she said. “I do not understand how lengthening the runway a little bit will do that.”

To date, 1,200 residents have signed a petition in opposition.

“This project will be a jet pilot’s dream, but a community’s nightmare,” Buczkowski said. “You represent thousands of voting citizens, not a few corporations or the FAA.”

If you go

» What: Airport vote

» When: 10 a.m. Tuesday

» Where: Carroll government offices, 225 N. Center St., Westminster

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com