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The Federal Aviation Administration spent the morning Wednesday unveiling plans and breaking ground for a new control tower at LaGuardia Airport, but the specter of another possible development hung over the proceedings.

With a $100 million control tower in the works, scheduled to be completed by the spring of 2009, concerns over a potential 11-story waste tower near the end of a LaGuardia runway were dismissed by the FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, who said the Administration does not think the proposed tower would interfere with airport operations.

An FAA spokesman said that the organization was obligated to conduct an additional review of the proposal, which has been the subject of an investigation twice already in the last two years.

The first study, in January 2005, flagged the structure as dangerous because the proposal exceeded a height limit, which automatically triggered a review in the approval process. A second study, released in September 2006, offered a change of heart, however, and declared the structure to be “no hazard.”

“We do not believe it will be a problem,” Blakey said. “You could operate and it would not be a hazard.”

In regards to the potential dangers of wildlife, specifically seagulls, that would trouble the area’s airspace, a spokesman for the FAA said the agency “would look at mitigation efforts that have been used at other airports,” in an attempt to quell any potential problems.

The plan to build was met with some resistance, both from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside), who sent a letter to Gov. Eliot Spitzer asking him to intervene.

Currently, the FAA has said it is reviewing the proposal as requested by the Port Authority, but Ackerman doesn’t believe it.

“It would seem to me if the FAA can’t find fault with it they should go into a different business,” Ackerman said, calling the choice to build such a structure “outside the realm of common sense.” Ackerman also called the building “foolish, foolhardy, reckless and callous,” among other things.

An FAA spokesman would only say that the supplementary review of the site is expected to be completed soon.

In the event that the FAA finds that the structure is within reasonable limits, Ackerman said he and the rest of the Queens congressional delegation are more than willing to explore other avenues to prevent the structure from being built.