'We're Ready To Move, Just Give Us A Fair Price' Say Homeowners Throwing In Towel After 30-Year Fight To Save Neighborhood From Airport Expansion

In Dania Beach, Florida, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports:

• Dania Beach homeowners who've fought for more than 30 years to protect their neighborhoods from airport expansion are sending a surprising signal to the county: They give up. They're ready to move out.

• What had always been a discussion and a debate suddenly became a reality to them: a new runway will be built next to them. The small prop planes and little executive jets whose sounds they accepted would be replaced by roaring commercial jetliners.

• Broward County's plans for Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport would finally come to pass. One by one they told the director of the airport at a meeting last week that the neighborhoods their tiny city spent more than $1 million defending cannot be saved.

• They said they want Broward County to buy their homes at a fair price, and, some suggested, tear them down. Living next to a major runway that will rise six stories into the air is not an existence anyone will want, they said. "It's impossible to live there.'' "This was a formula for blight.'' "No one will buy my home.'' "It's going to be a slum area.''

• "They want out,'' Dania City commissioner and runway foe Bob Anton said afterwards. "They're tired.''

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• Many of the affected residents enjoy the lifestyle of fancy Las Olas Isles' posh waterfront, but with Dania Beach prices. The canals give them ocean access, coveted in Broward. The sounds of the small general aviation runway next to them are bearable, they say. But homeowners said that with low-flying jets roaring directly over their homes, or close by, their time outdoors would be miserable.

For more, see Dania Beach homeowners ready to stop fighting airport expansion and move out.