CHAPEL HILL — Residents of the White Cross area plan to meet tonight to oppose a possible airport being sited there. But the UNC official in charge of the issue says it’s too soon to say where an airport might go.

Residents in the southwestern part of Orange County are concerned that a site identified in a 2005 consultant’s study could re-emerge now that an airport authority is being formed to look for a new airport location in the county.

The legislature authorized the formation of a 15-member authority this year to find and operate a new airport now that UNC is preparing to close Horace Williams Airpoirt in Chapel Hill. The university has said it must close the airport by the time it opens the Innovation Center, the first building on the future Carolina North campus off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Susan Lombardo lives on five acres on Maynard Farm Road off Orange Chapel Clover Garden Church Road. Her property is on the edge of site “H,” a top contender in a preliminary study three years ago, she said.

“It’s a very unsettling, distressing prospect for this community,” Lombardo said.

“Once the decision is made it will be almost impossible to reverse, so we want to make a lot of noise now.”

Community members are gathering signatures on a petition asking for the site to dropped from further consideration. Raleigh-Durham International Airport — where UNC plans to house its medical fleet while a new airport is being built — is a suitable alternative, the petition says. It also says an airport could contaminate groundwater, pollute the Haw River and disrupt a rural community’s way of life.

The airport authority will have the power of eminent domain, the acquisition of private land for public use. That concerned the county enough it tried to delay the bill authorizing authority.

Kevin FitzGerald, executive associate dean at the School of Medicine, said last week that the 2005 Talbert & Bright airport study is dated and White Cross residents’ petition drive is premature.

“That all has to get completely revisited,” he said.

“When it is formed, the new airport authority will need to conduct its own study in order to assess the needs and identify a site for a new facility,” he said.

The airport authority will have eight members from UNC and UNC Health Care, but FitzGerald said the university is interested in a new general aviation airport’s potential for economic development in the county (See related story, right).

A May 2008 Talbert & Bright report estimated a new Orange County airport could could have an economic impact of $40 million to $53 million a year. That’s four times a conservative estimate of the annual economic impact of Horace Williams impact.

IF YOU GO Residents will meet at 7 p.m. tonight at the White Cross Recreation Center.