Bayfield, WI – CFS, LLC has submitted a Conditional Use Permit application with Bayfield County to build a private airport planned for the top of the ridge of its 380?acre parcel of land in the Town of Russell. The development called Waypoint would lead with the construction of a private airstrip and hangars. Local zoning limits the number of home sites to 284, but CFS plans to develop fewer than 100 residences.

The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure held a residential through-the-fence hearing today. Download a PDF summary of the matter, or watch the hearing.

ABC News posted a story to its website titled, “FAA Says Hangar Homes Won’t Fly at Public Airports” today (Sept. 22, 2010). The story is laughably one-sided. From the story…

“Other problems include pets, people and private vehicles — including golf carts — wandering through fence openings onto airport tarmacs, including taxiways. Buildings and other structures erected by residents have also interfered with navigational radio signals and efforts to keep planes from coming too close together. Some airports have been unable to make “safety critical improvements” to taxiways and runways because of limitations resulting from the through-the-fence arrangements, the briefing paper said.”

As Through-the-Fence.org‘s Brent Blue has said numerous times, show us the evidence of these alleged infractions. This story comes as a result of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing today. Stay tuned.

The Full Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (U.S. House) will meet on Wednesday, September 22 at 10 am (EDT) to hear “Residential Through-the-Fence Agreements at Public Airports. Action to Date and Challenges”. The hearing will be available as a live webcast. Click the above link and find the graphic (left) in the upper left quarter of the website.

Dave led a EAA hosted webinar on August 27. More than 100 people attended the 75+ minute seminar with a lively question and answer session. Click here to watch.

The Oregon Statesman Journal reported on Sunday the FAA is “is proposing a rule that would be welcome in Independence Airpark.” The rule relates to residential through-the-fence operations and agreement and the apparent backing down of the FAA over existing locations.

Marc C. Lee authored a nice story in the September 2010 issue of Plane & Pilot magazine. The story, “Airpark Living: Waking Up To Your Dream” offers briefs descriptions on 18 airparks around the country (and one in Costa Rica). Be sure to check it out.

Several years ago we received information about an airpark in England – Telford Skypark in Telford – but have never been able to obtain any updates on the project. Now, Judith Woodsworth is travelling in Europe studying European Rural Development and plans a “dissertation on the benefits, or not, of Airparks/ Aviator Villages to the sustainable development of a rural area.”

She agreed to check up on some of the airparks we shared with her and recently she sent us the following information about Telford:

“The AirPark at Telford never got off the ground. It was subject to a public enquiry and planning was denied even though every residential plot was spoken for and the industrial units too. Funnily one of the Directors is now my flight instructor – she’s excellent. Just passed my Air Law and hopefully 1st solo soon.”

Going to the Arlington Fly-In this week? Dave will be leading a forum on Saturday, July 10 at 10:30 am in Forum Tent F. (See complete fly-in forum schedule). You can also stop by our booth (space 98). See you there.

Recently a reader asked about posting figures for airpark taxes, real estate taxes and much, much more. Although it is extremely difficult to accumulate this type of information for all the various airparks around the country, I ran across one item in the Wall Street Journal recently that might be helpful in figuring out the possible taxes a property has levied against it..

The article noted that taxes on a piece of real estate – home, airpark, etc., nationwide averaged around 1% of the property’s assessed value.

That got me to thinking and I checked my own home tax assessment and talked to several other people both locally and in distant places and discovered this was a good rule of thumb. It is always important to check out the tax load on the place you are considering purchasing, but you can probably use this bit of data for early figuring.

Of course, I will look forward to hearing from those who deal with this type of material all the time telling us whether r not this is a valid rule of thumb.