- October 30, 2024
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The Flagler Executive Airport now has the County Commission's go-ahead to buy a 15-acre parcel of land for an expansion project, but the commission's decision came minutes after the Flagler Executive Airport Advisory Council's chairman used the meeting's public comment period to offer his resignation and question the need for the land purchase.
The chairman, Daryl Hickman, said the $250,000 purchase wouldn't have been necessary if the airport had stuck to its master plan and if the airport expansion project had had sufficient oversight.
The land will be used for construction related to a proposed new general aviation terminal building — specifically, for a roundabout, access road and new parking.
"It was somehow missed that we were moving forward with a project that utilized land we did not own," and which the airport would then need to buy, Hickman said.
The advisory council had suggested to airport Director Roy Sieger that the airport should "put a pause" on the project, Hickman said, but, "The general response was that it would be too costly to return to the design phase and evaluate the errors." The advisory's concerns and suggestions have largely been ignored, he added.
Sieger said that the fact that the airport didn't own that land wasn't missed, and that there hadn't been any errors.
"When we first started working on this project, one of the things that I wanted to do was put in a roundabout," Sieger said. "We have a stop sign now, and people just blow right through it. ... When we first were looking at this roundabout, it was going to be a little smaller, and not go into the property beside it. But because of the traffic that is going to be on that traffic circle" — for instance, fire trucks and military vehicles — "it has to go to a certain size, so that’s what made it go over onto that property. We went through a bunch of different scenarios trying to move things around in order to accommodate that traffic circle without buying that property. It actually would cost us more money to do it differently."
The expansion project will ultimately total an estimated $10 million over a number of years, Sieger said, so spending $250,000 now to build it right, so it won't cause problems in the future, makes sense.
The 15.17 acres of land south of S.R. 100 and abutting the airport is owned by Flagler Pines Properties, an LLC owned by Jay Gardner, the county property appraiser, and his family.
Gardner, himself a pilot who's flown out of the airport, said he's been holding that land for the airport because he knew the airport wanted it.
"They've been wanting to buy that property from me for about five years," he said. "I’ve actually told other people, 'No the county needs it for the airport.' ... Literally, I’ve told some people, 'That's not really for sale.'"
Sieger said he was aware of the Gardner family's connection to the land. "But it could have been owned by anybody," he said. "It’s a property that’s contiguous to the airport ... that is going to allow for expansion," including space for two more airport business tenants and additional stormwater storage in future years, he said.
About four of the 15 acres of land are upland, while the rest are wetland.
Money for the purchase would come from Airport Enterprise Fund reserves, not the county budget.
The commission approved the purchase at the Feb. 17 meeting as part of the meeting's consent agenda. Commissioners also accepted Hickman's resignation and thanked him for serving.
County Administrator Jerry Cameron said he attended the last Advisory Council meeting, on Wednesday, Feb. 12, and noted a number of issues.
"I studied the formulation of the advisory board and their bylaws, and came to the conclusion that there is no clear direction," Cameron said. "It was acting more in an oversight capacity that an advisory capacity."
That will be addressed through the formation of a bylaws revision committee, he said.
There will also be another new committee: A noise abatement committee to address resident concerns. That committee is being assembled, Cameron said.
One step to address noise complaints, Cameron said, is already underway: The county is contacting the flight schools based out of the airport in order to set up a joint meeting.
The flight school traffic has been a prime target of resident complaints to the county and airport administration about airport-related noise.
