Kenner council approves conditional use for airport shuttle road, apron expansion and new parking lots amid drainage concerns

Kenner — The City of Kenner on a January 2026 council meeting approved a conditional use application authorizing three projects on airport property: an express shuttle connector road, an east apron expansion and two new surface parking lots.

A Planning Department representative described the package as planning case P19-25 and said the projects are intended to reduce shuttle transit times, provide additional aircraft service space and add roughly 449 parking spaces in two new surface lots (about 125 and 324 spaces). The planning presentation said tree counts and some landscaping details were incomplete in the submitted plans and must be provided before permits are issued, but that the applicant’s stormwater management plan was reviewed and found to meet the city’s regulations.

"This project will build a new road on airport property," the Planning Department representative told the council, outlining a two-phase shuttle connector and other site work. The presentation noted the apron expansion adds about 6,000 square yards for ground service equipment and aircraft parking.

Walter Kraygowski, deputy director of operations and maintenance at the airport, said the smaller lot will be a credit-card in/out product connected to the long-term garage and that the larger lot will be on the north side, providing walking connections to the terminal. He said the improvements are expected to reduce shuttle traffic on Veterans Boulevard and produce additional parking-related tax revenue for Kenner.

Several council members and residents raised concerns about stormwater and historic flooding in neighborhoods near the airport. Residents recounted previous flooding and asked whether existing pump stations would handle additional runoff once green space is replaced by pavement.

Kenny Boyd, program manager with Burns McDonald, said drainage studies dating to a 2014 master plan covered the site and that an updated drainage study incorporating the connector road and parking lots shows the Storm Mark Pump Station has sufficient capacity for the proposed developments. "Our drainage study shows that Storm Mark Pump Station has plenty of capacity for our developments that we're proposing," Boyd said.

Airport operations staff acknowledged a prior hurricane-related outage that they said was caused by an automation failure rather than insufficient pump capacity. Staff told the council a manual override capability has been added and that personnel will be stationed at the pump station during significant rain events as a precaution. They also said the pump station runs on commercial power and that generators will kick in only if commercial power is lost; Jefferson Parish can monitor pump operation via the SCADA system.

Council member Sharwith recorded the sole opposing vote at the final approval. The council first closed the public hearing by a 7–0 vote and then approved the conditional use by a 6–1 roll call, with Council member Sharwith voting "nay."

The Planning Department noted outstanding submittal items — including landscaping details and tree species — that must be completed before permits are issued. Airport staff said the projects will be folded into the FAA-required master plan review already under way.

What comes next: conditions identified by planning must be satisfied in final permit submittals; staff said the airport will coordinate intersection configurations with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and the city of Kenner and will continue to work with the FAA on the broader master plan.