CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Federal Aviation Administration reached out to 2,657 parties to solicit public comments on the Browns’ plan to build a new $2.4 billion stadium near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, and only one responded — the city of Cleveland.
Bryant Francis, Mayor Justin Bibb’s appointed leader of the city-owned airports, said the height of the stadium would interfere with air traffic at Hopkins.
The FAA ultimately determined the project would not be a hazard so long as red lights were added to the roof.
But that complaint filed by Francis, which he also sent to the Ohio Department of Transportation, proved important.
Earlier this month, ODOT denied the Browns a construction permit, citing the city’s continued opposition. It’s not a done deal, as ODOT has offered up alternatives the Browns could explore, and the team has the option to appeal.
Yet the complaint from the very city that is trying to keep the team from moving to suburban Brook Park has added a glitch to the team’s plans to build its new stadium.
“If an airport has any objections to a permit due to safety concerns, it has generally been ODOT’s practice to deny the permit based on the airport’s concerns,” an agency spokesperson said this week. ODOT is working to schedule a meeting with team officials.
The FAA said it circulated the issue to 2,657 parties in February, both with “aviation” and “non-aeronautical” interests that may be affected. No one else responded, according to the FAA’s determination letter of May 28.
The FAA said such letters are circulated to known aviation interested persons and groups such as the state aviation agencies; military representatives; national and local offices of aviation organizations; local flight schools, local airport owners, managers, and fixed base operators; and local air taxi and charter flight offices.
Francis has been pressing the issue since at least March, when he filed objections with both ODOT and the FAA. He followed up again with ODOT on June 25, saying Cleveland’s “opposition to a permanent structure impacting the airspace of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE) remains.”
ODOT’s rejection followed on Aug. 1.
In its decision, ODOT suggested two alternatives: lowering the proposed stadium’s height from 221 feet to 163 feet or moving it farther from the airport. The Browns already plan to sink the field 80 feet into the ground, but that hasn’t solved the city’s safety concerns.
“The proposed building development’s detrimental effects on CLE’s navigable airspace, and its effects on the approach surfaces go against the objectives of the city of Cleveland’s Department of Port Control,” Francis wrote in March.
The Browns, through aviation attorney and former FAA chief counsel Kenneth Quinn, counter that exceeding height limits is common. He noted that 31 other structures already surpass FAA “surface” rules around Hopkins and that the FAA itself formally cleared the project in May.
Still, ODOT’s denial now forces the team to weigh an appeal, even as other challenges mount.
A city lawsuit seeks to block the move on grounds the team has violated its current lease by negotiating the Brook Park deal. Another suit, filed by two former Democratic state officials, contests the state’s removal of $1 billion from unclaimed funds to create a sports and arts facility fund — including $600 million earmarked for the Browns’ stadium.
Meanwhile, Francis has raised other objections beyond height, warning last year that a Brook Park stadium could create traffic headaches for airport passengers.
_This story created with the assistance of A.I. provides new information from what was reported earlier._
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