an option. 77% of voters approved the proposed version, and in June 1996, the consolidation process was finalized. In 2010, a group called "Envision Edmonton" organized numerous initiatives to lobby against the City Centre Airport's closure. Envision Edmonton, and other critics of the proposal, circulated a petition which garnered over 70,000 signatures, organized protests, and supported pro-airport candidates in Edmonton's 2010 municipal election. The petition, which would have forced a municipal plebiscite on the fate of the airport, was found to fall below the requirements because less than 10% of Edmontonians signed it, and it was not filed within 60 days of city council's decision to close the airport. The petition contained approximately 100,000 signatures when it was filed, but city staff determined that almost 30,000 of them did not belong to eligible electors. Closure On July 8, 2009, the city council decided on a phased closure of the airport. The Alberta Aviation Museum and some non-aviation institutions were to remain, with some land transferred to Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, and the rest converted to a primarily residential development. The north–south runway, Runway 16/34, was to be the first runway closed. The closure was postponed until after the Indy and Airfest events of 2010. On August 3, 2010, Runway 16/34 was closed to air traffic with a Notice to Airmen being issued at 3:00 am that morning. Closure of the remaining runway, Runway 12/30, was announced at an Edmonton City Council meeting on September 26, 2013. Licenses for scheduled air service were not renewed. On the afternoon of November 30, 2013, the last airplane to leave the airfield was a Cessna 172, owned and piloted by a local. Weather prevented a pair of CF-18 fighter jets from performing a touch-and-go landing as the ceremonial last takeoff. Shortly afterwards, ERAA placed barricades on Runway 12/30 to prevent access, and markers were placed to clearly signal to pilots that it was closed. On February 21, 2015, a Pipistrel Virus aircraft C-FCDZ flying over the site of the airport suffered a propeller failure, resulting in an unplanned landing on the airport grounds using the plane's ballistic parachute. Blatchford community , 525 acres of the former Blatchford Field is undergoing redevelopment into a medium- and high-density neighbourhood. In February 2019, the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology purchased 33 acres of land in Blatchford, as well as more land at the site of the