A North Texas environmental group has filed a lawsuit seeking to void the environmental assessment for the McKinney airport expansion.

The North Texas Conservation Association filed a petition in U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia challenging the Texas Department of Transportation’s environmental assessment for the airport expansion this week.

The environmental group alleges that TxDOT’s environmental assessment, which included a finding of no significant impact on the environment, failed to meet standards set in the National Environmental Policy Act. The conservation group is asking the court to remand the assessment back to TxDOT for a more thorough review.

Steven E. Ross, the secretary and general counsel for the North Texas Conservation Association, said the environmental assessment doesn’t adequately address several environmental concerns, including how the Heard Natural Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary will be impacted.

“There’s just a multitude of things that could be done, and we don’t think the city has thought through those,” he said.

The city said it will “vigorously defend the findings” of the environmental assessment and seek to have the lawsuit dismissed.

The lawsuit is the latest controversy for the airport project, McKinney voters struck down $200 million in bond funds for expanding the city’s regional airport for commercial use in 2023. The city is still moving forward with the project using other funding, including sales tax dollars.

Ross said the McKinney city council is rushing the airport expansion, which is scheduled to start construction in June and finish sometime next year.

“The city seems to be rushing through this in order to comply with the airline’s timeline rather than taking a good hard look at the impacts that this expansion will have on the environment,” he said.

McKinney Mayor George Fuller said TxDOT’s assessment already addresses the environmental group’s concerns. Fuller said the lawsuit is a political stunt by the organization’s president, Paul Chabot.

“He, of course, formed that entity for this very purpose to sound legitimate as he lacks the respect and legitimacy in the community to file it in his own name,” he said.

Chabot called Fuller’s comment unprofessional and said the mayor is trying to make the issue personal.

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