CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The new Carroll High School is once again the subject of potential accident zones.
The U.S. Navy announced at a city of Corpus Christi planning commission meeting two weeks ago that 2020 Air Installation Compatible Use Zones (AICUZ) for Cabaniss and Waldron fields would be expanding.
The update was presented during an Airport Zoning Commission meeting, following a Planning Commission meeting Wednesday night.
The new maps, which were last updated in 2009, show the new Carroll High School, located at Saratoga Boulevard and Kostoryz Road, in an Accident Potential Zone 2.
The site was approved for construction after the Navy objected to CCISD's original relocation plan, which would have put the campus on the corner of Weber and Saratoga, an Accident Potential Zone 1.
Ben Pollack, Naval Air Station Community Planning Liaison Officer, addressed the high school during the meeting. He said that the current location is safer than the original site and the district worked with the Navy to come up with a solution.
"When we sat down to talk to Corpus Christi ISD to talk about this, the closed loops obviously weren’t there at the time," Pollack told the commission. "We recommended you know, that the school not be built there in the beginning."
"So, we actually sat down and talked about different areas, we discussed a little north of the site that is currently being built on right now," he added. "Due to power lines and drainage, it just wasn’t feasible. So the area where it’s currently located right now does fall under the Accident Potential Zone 2. But, what I would like to point out is that number one when you’re talking about aviation and flight there is always a risk but we have procedures in place to mitigate these risks to the lowest possible level."
Some of those mitigated risks include how many flights are traveling over the new location, versus the old location. The district's original location comprised 63 percent of aircraft traffic, Pollack said.
The new location also has pilots flying level at 800 feet, whereas the Weber location pilots were preparing for touch and go operations, Pollack said.
The updated maps will be valid for ten years.
This is a developing story, stay with KRIS 6 News for updates.
