CHAPEL HILL -- UNC's point man for Carolina North says the university is proceeding with plans to close Horace Williams Airport despite a bill introduced last week to keep it open.

"My marching orders are to work toward implementation of the chancellor's plan," Jack Evans, executive director of the future research campus, said Thursday.

UNC plans to close the airport in time to open its Innovation Center, the first building in Carolina North. The university has said it needs the new satellite campus to remain competitive.

On Tuesday, state Sen. Tom Apodaca, a Hendersonville Republican, introduced a bill that would keep Horace Williams Airport open until a new airport is operating within 10 nautical miles of the current airport's location off Estes Drive Extension in Chapel Hill.

The bill would also freeze funding for planning, design or materials associated with the $3 million hangar UNC plans to build at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The university would house its Area Health Education Centers fleet there until it can locate and build a new airport closer to campus. The hangar proposal goes to the Council of State for approval in July, Evans said.

Apodaca, whose bill has four cosponsors, said he has flown patients into Horace Williams Airport for treatment at UNC Hospitals and that the airport is needed for patient safety. He called the university's plans a "land grab for Carolina to expand an office park."

To read Apodaca's bill go to the N.C. General Assembly Web site, www.ncga.state.nc.us/, go to "Legislation/Bills," click on "Bill Look-up" and type S1962.