News

City prepares response to FAA

By William Hoover
Anvil Herald Correspondent

After the special council meeting on Monday, May 6, Mayor Jim Danner commented on one of the six items discussed by council in executive session: the city’s response to the Southwest Region Federal Aviation Administration official’s recent offer to consider pre-qualifying certain city airport parcels for more timely release for resale to interested businesses.

“We decided we are going go ahead and solidify and amend our request to the FAA to come up with a faster release plan for our airport properties,” said the mayor summing up the executive session discussion.

“When we made our presentation to the FAA in Fort Worth on April 17, they gave us around 30 days to respond with a proposal within FAA guidelines to streamline the release process,” he added. “It would be hard to completely close a sale in just three to four months, so if we could keep it between that period of time we would be in pretty good shape.”

During the presentation in April, the city asked for pre-release of 1,300 acres of non-aviation related airport property to eliminate the 12 to 18 months it had been taking the FAA to consider and release the land for sale to interested buyers.

The FAA balked at the request, but did offer to allow the city to submit blanket release notices to the Federal Register to allow the 45-day advertisement and comment period to take place in advance of any potential sale. In addition, the FAA agreed to allow the city to request a release submittal before it actually has a lease agreement with a company.

Both FAA concessions could shorten the release process and reduce waiting time for approval to around two months, according to Danner.

• Council tentatively plans to cancel its next regular meeting on Monday, May 13. Instead, they plan to hold a special meeting on Monday, May 20, at 6 p.m. in city hall.

The special meeting may be held to address economic development items, other outstanding issues and to avoid convening on May 27, which is Memorial Day. The meeting is open to the public.