FAA, Fly Zones in Reverters
Lawrence County, Ohio, is having a bit of a problem with its airport. On the one hand, it could just close as an airport. However, the FAA desires to continue maintaining the airport. A local family who donated the land for the airport seeks to prohibit tree cutting necessary in the abutting area in order to fulfill FAA glide regulations. In the meantime, the family donation includes a reverter clause requiring the return of the property if the land is no longer utilized for an airport. The owners and the County are in a very uncomfortable situation.
On Jan. 20, 2011, the commission passed a resolution stating there was a public need to expand the airpark to comply with Federal Aviation Administration regulations.
"(Those requirements were for) runway safety areas, air space removal, approach surface penetration, the land and air scale regulations as identified in the Lawrence County Cemetery Study (July 2002), the Runway Safety Area Study of Airport 2004 and the Airport Master Plan update of March 2005," the resolution stated.
The property sought is owned by North Kenova Holdings, LLC, and North Kenova Development Co. Inc., companies owned by members of the Wilson family. The Wilson family provided the land to the county for the airpark decades ago through a reversion lease. The land must be used as a county airpark or the acreage reverts back to the Wilson family.
"(Acquiring the land) is a grant from (the FAA)," Meyers said. "The Wilsons have not responded to me. We had to go through this formal procedure."
The property sought through the petition and the airpark acreage have been issues between the commissioners and the Wilson family for several years.
During a commission meeting in 2008, then Commission President Jason Stephens criticized Richard Wilson for not cutting down trees at the end of the runway that Stephens said created a hazard for pilots flying in and out of the airpark.
