Question from Dave Hamann: Been following through the fence issue. For now this does not appear to apply to privately owned, public access airports. Mid Valley Airpark (E98), NM has been open to public for 40 years. However, should we in any way shape or form accept state money, I can see we may get in a bind.

Answer from Dave Sclair: You are correct in your assumption that private-owned, public-use airports don’t seem to be affected. Accepting a state grant for improvements might not be a problem either, although before getting into such an agreement it would be highly intelligent to have the agreements checked out for attachments to the FAA.

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 an email we received from Thom Barlow of Tampa, Florida:

Charlie Masters from Sandy’s Farm Airpark sandysairpark@sportys.com said to contact you.

I live on a modest little airport community 18 mi. north of Tampa FL. called Tampa North Aeropark (X 39). Before this Sub-Prime Mortgage Fiasco hit the fan the market value of my 4 bedroom 3 full-bath country-style hangar home was approximately $440,000. Now I can’t get an appraisal up over $250,000.00. It seems “they” do everything they can to purposely de-value my place. My loan officer told me Bank of America is holding so many foreclosure properties they have de-valued everything in the market so they can unload their inventory.

My biggest hurdle is the COMPS. The Appraisers don’t know how to appraise “Airport Community Homes”, They just don’t see the VALUE of living with your plane on a runway. They want to compare my place with a run-of-the-mill home in the area. More than likely sold real cheap & fast so the seller could get out from under a sub-prime mortgage and/or they lost their employment during this fiasco the Banks caused to the world economy.

My question to you is . . . Do you have knowledge of this happening elsewhere ? If so . . . What is being done to address it ?

Could you direct my path to Real Estate Appraisers that know what they’re doing ? I don’t care if they’re in other states. They might know useful stratigies and have connections that could help me here. This might be an area for your “Living with your Plane” to address at this time.

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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?”

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We received the following from Bob Aronson:

“We own a 7000 foot runway as part of a closed military base. Do you have any links to qualified firms that can advise on the feasibility of an airpark? Thanks!”

Dave responded with:

I would contact BCRA Design, a large, multi-faceted engineering, design, planning firm. Email: jbrown@bcradesign.com or call 253-627-4367. Good luck and keep us posted on how your project develops. You can also search our resources listings.

The City of Driggs signed a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) with the FAA in order to receive $7 million for widening and resurfacing all the runways and taxiways at the Driggs Airport (KIDJ). Prior to the agreement, eight hangar and hangar home owners received an injunction against the City to enjoin them from “affecting the interest in real property.”

We had a hearing on August 4th and the ruling from the bench was that the CAP did not “affect” the interest in real property. The defense the City took was that there were no changes with the CAP, they just were now going to enforce what they never enforce before. I do not feel our attorneys did a good job of showing that this was a definite change from the status quo which was the sole defense. Basically, we were out lawyered.
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Former Port of Orcas commissioner John Becker offers a detailed comment on the current thru-the-fence challenges Orcas Island, Washington residents are facing.

We received the following letter from Ed Jeffko relating to our recent (and ongoing) discussion of thru-the-fence arrangements:

If you think the FAA doesn’t reach into non FAA funded airports, think again. The FAA’s little brother, WSDOT is in lockstep.

I have 60 acres and my neighbor has 90 acres adjoining the Tonasket, Washington airport. We approached the city council to consider a TTF agreement so that we may do some development. They took it under advisement.

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My Parents have lived for over 20 years in Florida at the Spruce Creek residential airpark. They tell me that the Hangar, as it is not a living space, is not considered in the valuation for a home mortgage. My guess is the tax man has no problem recognizing it as a revenueable event / thing. I would have guessed in a situation like that, with runway access, it would have a positive effect on the valuation of the property.

Is this a Florida thing or is this another obstacle to living next to your airplane?

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Earlier this year, we asked for some data from our subscribers relating to airpark sales activity. The summary can be read here, but we received the following comment from Sweden just today. To read the other comment (13 in total) click here.

We have a magnificent airpark in Sweden where all 45 plots were sold in the time of six months. Now there are a few plots for sale (40 000 USD for a plot that fits hangar and house!) and that is even above the prices they were sold for initially.

Johan Hammarström
Chairman of the AirPark