Sean C. Morgan
The City Council will take up discussion about a new airport later, probably during its upcoming goal-setting and planning session.
In September, Council Jeff Goodwin introduced the topic during a council meeting. The mayor referred the matter to the council’s Property Committee for further discussion and exploration.
The Property Committee met in October and discussed the concept of developing a municipal airport or allowing private airfields, which have existed in Sweet Home in the past.
The meeting included comments from several members of the public who were interested in private or experimental aircraft uses, said Planning Services Manager Laura LaRoque. The Property Committee suggested the possibility of forming an airport development group.
The council also directed staff to provide more information on the process and potential costs for a feasibility analysis, with a report to the council during its regular meeting on Dec. 8.
“We brought forward information that was requested in terms of process,” said City Manager Craig Martin during the regular meeting on Dec. 8. LaRoque put together an outline of the process and what plans the council would need to change, primarily regarding public airports.
Private airfields are primarily regulated by the state, Martin said.
“We just need to know if you want to move forward and how to pursue looking at this,” Martin told the council. Staff can queue it up in the Comprehensive Plan review and begin looking for funds to pay for economic and transportation demand analysis.
“We don’t have enough room to do a public one unless we condemned property and took it,” said Mayor Jim Gourley. The city doesn’t have space for a municipal airport. A private airport might require less. “I’m not interested in doing any condemnation on any property for an airstrip.”
Goodwin suggested that there may be other options.
“I don’t want to jump to conclusions about what property is available,” he said. “It’s possible that we could expand the city to include an airport. There are other areas that are close to the city limits that could actually be developed.
“My inclination on this was to defer it till our council planning session and talk about it amongst our long-term planning goals. I don’t think it’s something we’re going to necessarily do immediately, but it’s something we can look at as we’re developing, as we’re talking about the transportation plan in the future. I see it as a hole in our plan.
“We had an airport. We closed it down. We don’t really have a plan for how we would put another one in if we wanted to. If a developer wanted to come in today and say, ‘Hey, I’d like to purchase this property and I want to put in an airport. I want to put in an airfield and a bunch of houses associated with it.’ There isn’t a plan for that.”
Gourley said it would be worthwhile to research the subject.
“I think it’s worth our while to have the information for the council to read and be smart on it,” he said. “There’s a lot to it if you delve into it.
“It’s certainly something, that in the future, during periodic review, a time when the city must review and update its Comprehensive Plan, that the city could consider bringing in components to provide for development of a public airport.
“At the core, what we’re talking about is economic development. If there was a way to do it that we could make it happen, it would be very good for this community. The question is what is the path forward to that that’s going to make the most sense. We all know we don’t have the property now. We don’t have the money to do it.
“What we can be doing about it is thinking about it, planning on it, because opportunities may come up. The potential may there in three or four years, five years. I think we should definitely put it into our planning to at least get it back on the table.”
Present at the Dec. 8 council meeting were councilors Ryan Underwood, Greg Mahler, Gourley, Dave Trask and Goodwin. Bruce Hobbs and Marybeth Angulo were absent.
In other business, the council:
n Appointed James Gobel to a new term on the Planning Commission. He was appointed to the commission in May 2013, with a term expiring at the end of December. His new term expires in December 2020.
n Canvassed the results from the Nov. 3 election, in which Sweet Home voters approved local option levies, which pay for police and library services for five years. Gourley read a proclamation announcing the results.