The idea of an aviation park has been suggested a few times by our community. The RDU park is definitely a nice attraction and a creative airport feature, but for SJC the serious obstacles are both real cost and opportunity cost.

Because SJC property is very limited, we have to be careful with how we use every acre. And because budgets are tight, the same goes for our dollars. We just don't have airport funds available for building or maintaining a park, and developing more general aviation services has greater potential both for generating revenue and meeting real Silicon Valley GA market needs.

For these reasons we will be focusing potential private-sector development on the west side, including the former SJSU site, for aviation-related services over the next several years. Since we have to do a lot of prep work with technical studies and putting RFPs together, it's still too early to tell exactly what will take shape there.

David Vossbrink, SJC Communications Director