We received the following email from a Living With Your Plane reader today. Please post your feedback in the comment area below the letter.
I am looking for experiences and suggestions pertaining to residential airparks where a developer or individual owns the underlying land of the runway(s), taxiways, roads and other common areas. In my particular instance, the primary Home Owners Association (HOA) is chartered with maintaining these areas and has collectively paid for paving the runway, adding runway lights, grading and fill of graveled areas, etc. Attorneys have told the HOA that they are responsible for safety by this action of maintaining the runway and common areas, and less-so the underlying land owner.
Our underlying land owner is a resident pilot and dues-paying HOA member. However he is reluctant to relinquish his overall control. This has already caused conflicts where residents feel his actions on his land adjacent to the runway (declared right-of-way and easement) create an unsafe aviation condition, but are powerless to change it. The HOA is never consulted beforehand either. In addition, our small airpark with about 25 owners has three separate HOA/covenant boundaries which were determined when each area was sold. The irrigation and trash users are also separate entities. Read the full story
Following is a press release from Brent Blue, founder of ThoughTheFence.org. In our opinion, Dr. Blue has done an outstanding job of pursuing the through-the-fence issue to the benefit of ALL property owners, but especially those who currently enjoy the benefits of a legal, and binding, through-the-fence agreement.
The FAA’s new Airport Compliance Manual (ACM) adversely affects every federally funded airport by its new mandate telling local airports how to deal with their neighbors. The new policy forbids local airport authorities from entering into new “through-the-fence” (TTF) agreements with neighboring land owners and requires non-renewal of current agreements at the end of the contract term. The rule, which replaces “discourage” with “prohibit”, affects thousands of businesses, pilots, aircraft hangars, and hangar homes connected by gated taxiways to airport property.
The FAA, responding this week to two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, could not provide any data to support new prohibitions on TTF agreements. The new prohibitions were announced in the ACM 5190.6B unveiled September 30, 2009, which was prepared without any public input or comment. Read the full story
John McArdle, mayor of City of Independence (Oregon) and Gregg Del Ponte, the acting director of the Oregon Department of Aviation have both gone on the record in favor the through-the-fence agreement at Independence Airport. A story at StatesmanJournal.com turns the spotlight on the FAAs efforts and actions to do away with through-the-fence agreements at federally funded airports.
As we’ve discussed before on this site, the FAA is taking a position against through-the-fence airparks at federally obligated airports. The FAA has issued a memorandum relating to “Compliance Guidance Letter (CGL) 2009-1-Through-the-Fence and On-Airport Residential Access To Federally Obligated Airports”. Our opposition to the CGL and memorandum are based on a number of points. We have submitted the following statement of our opposition to the FAA proposal. Read the full story
The Experimental Aircraft Association is asking members (read story) “who have real-world experience in through-the-fence operations” to log into its Oshkosh365 social media website to provide “feedback and constructive comments” that will help craft EAAs official response to the FAA.
An email from Tom Hall sheds light on a Tennessee airport with a through-the-fence issue:
Although widely publicized, I do not see our airport listed. Scott County Airport (Oneida, TN) is currently “in informal non-compliance” with FAA land use. All funds have been with held. This is in retaliation for granting TTF access to the Big SouthFork Airpark. Read the full story
Following is a question from Dale Whiting, and our response:
“What does ‘Through the Fence’ mean? My local GA field has imposed a fee on through the fence operations. I have always understood that ‘through the fence’ applied to operations taking an aircraft through a gate onto or off of the field. The local GA field appears to wish to impose fees on any business located off field which comes through any gate to do anything. Can you cite me to an authoritative FAA definition?”
A new organization, ThoughTheFence.org (TTF), used the AOPA Aviation Summit to announce its’ formation on Thursday. The organization has been formed by pilots to fight the FAA’s prohibition of hangar homes at publicly funded airports. Read the full story
Jerry and Barbara Norcia have posted a short video explaining why they built their home next to Creswell Airport in Oregon. They access the airport via a through-the-fence agreement the FAA now wants eliminated. Please take a few moments to watch and share.
The Arizona Daily Star is reporting that Ruby Star Airpark (Arizona) developer has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. From the story:
“[Denny] Nolen’s attorney, Jeffrey H. Greenberg, said his client filed for Chapter 11 to preserve his assets while he works toward an agreement with the lot owners and brings the property into compliance.”
