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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-14-2002 Airport Commission Meeting MinutesMINUTES IOWA CITY AIRPORT COMMISSION THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2002 — 5:45 P.M. IOWA CITY AIRPORT TERMINAL MEMBERS PRESENT: Rick Mascari, Mark Anderson, Alan Ellis, Baron Thrower STAFF PRESENT: Sue Dulck, Ron O'Neil CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Anderson called the meeting to order at 5:47 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes of the October 10, 2002, Commission meeting were approved with two corrections. On page 2, paragraph 4, Nichols was misspelled. On page 2, paragraph 4, Dulek received another address from the Post office, not from Nichols. AUTHORIZATION OF EXPENDITURES: Mascari made a motion to pay the bills. Ellis seconded the motion. Mascari asked what the repair bill was for the NDB? O'Neil said it was for parts and repair. Mascari said he thought the Commission had decided not to maintain the NDB if any significant repairs were needed. O'Neil said the Commission had not made that decision. He will bring the issue to the Commission before making any other significant repairs. The motion passed 4 - 0, with Robnett being absent. PUBLIC DISCUSSION—ITEMS NOT ON AGENDA: No items were presented. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION/ACTION: a. Aviation Commerce Park 1. Iowa Realty November report — Tracy Overton introduced his boss at Iowa Realty Commercial, Scott Byers. Byers was invited to the meeting to answer any questions the Commission had about the leasing market. Overton said he was still negotiating with the possible tenant for lot #17. He said he was hopeful to receive an offer on another lot on the north side of Ruppert Road. Overton said there has been discussion with a potential tenant for one of the lots on the south side of the road. There is an interest in the lots from a sales perspective. Mascari asked Byers what has changed from the original presentation made a year and a half ago that has made it more difficult to lease the property? Byers said there were several factors. One was the interest rates. Commercial interest rates are down so much that buyers are willing to borrow money to purchase instead of lease. Land leases are not the norm in the Midwest. People would rather own property, rather than lease. Also, the downturn in the economy has had a chilling effect on the market. Mascari said he has read that construction and real estate has not been affected by the economy. Byers said that is true for single-family residential, not commercial. Ellis asked what hasn't been done yet to market this as aviation property. Byers said that they have targeted the regional market, but have not tried to attract buyers on a national level. Byers said they are open to suggestions. He said he doesn't know how effective a national advertising campaign would be. Ellis said he thought the Commission knew going into this project that it was a five to ten year project. Byers suggested a longer-term lease might be beneficial. He said he thought it would be helpful to have a 99 -year lease. He said the Commission should explore having the area designated a TIF district. The Commission discussed advertising costs with Byers and Overton. Overton said that even if they could attract an aviation business to locate on one of the south lots, the Commission would have to have funding to construct access to the runway system. 2. Other issues — Because the lending rates have dropped, Ellis suggested the City should look at refinancing the bonds used to pay off the infrastructure. Ellis said he still preferred not to sell any property. He said that needs to be discussed with the Council. Mascari said he thought the Commission's decision to look at selling the property was a big factor in the Council's decision not to move forward to get rid of the Commission. Thrower said one of the reasons the Commission invited Byers was to give the Commission some new ideas for marketing the property. Byers said his marketing based on selling the property was new because the Commission had only recently given them direction to sell the parcels. Thrower suggested Overton and Byers present a marketing plan to the Commission next month. Overton said that until they officially are given to permission to sell, he would not be comfortable marketing the property for sale. Dulek said the sales agreement would be between Iowa Realty and the Council, not the Commission. Ellis said this should be a major topic when the Council/Commission subcommittee meets. Byers said he feels the sale or lease options will give them a more level playing field. Dulek said there has been no response from Rob Nichols on lot # 10. His lease will terminate at the end of November. Ellis said the Commission should pursue the back rent owed to them. Mascari wanted to know where the Commission was in relation to the FAA waiver to sell the property? O'Neil said the plat has been revised and was on Planning and Zoning's schedule. It would then go to Council. O'Neil said changing the south property line was the major FAA objection. O'Neil said he and Overton met with a contractor that has a large amount of fill dirt to dispose of. He would sell it to the Commission for about $1 per cubic yard. Overton said a few cents per square foot could be added to the selling price to pay for the fill. O'Neil said he has discussed this with the City Manager. O'Neil said there is a project at the University of Iowa that may have some free fill material. O'Neil said that if the free fill is not available, the Commission should negotiate with the other contractor. The contractor said he would not charge the Commission until the lots were sold. The Commission directed O'Neil to negotiate for fill material for the ACP. A landowner by outlot B would like a long-term easement from the Commission for the property that borders his. In exchange for the easement, he would maintain the Airport property and provide landscaping. The easement would allow him to expand his parking lots. O'Neil will put this on the agenda for a future meeting. b. Environmental Assessment - Dick Blum, from H.R. Green, said the EA is going forward on several fronts. One of the next tasks is to do several soiling borings to look for archeological remains. He said some areas of the Airport would need to be temporarily closed while the soil sampling is being done. c. Airport Layout Plan — Blum provided Anderson with four copies of the ALP for him to sign. They will then be forwarded to the FAA. Ellis said the FBO would need to know when the drilling is scheduled. Blum said the approach slope on Runway 25 will be shown as 34:1. He said a localizer is shown on Runway 07. Mascari said there had been some discussion in the news media about whether or not Dane Road needed to be closed and he asked Blum if he would explain why it is being closed? Blum said that Dane Road is on the western part of the ALP. It runs through an area west of Runway 07, a little over 700' from the current runway end. It goes through the Obstacle Free Area and through the localizer critical area. The localizer is for the precision approach on the approach end for Runway 25. Blum said not closing Dane Road would functionally reduce the length of the runway. The runway threshold on Runway 25 in being displaced because Riverside Drive is within the Obstacle Free Area. The amount it is being displaced on the east end is being added to the west end. If Dane Road is not closed, the published length of the runway would be much shorter. The published length is one of the things pilots look at to determine if they can safely land in Iowa City. Mascari made a motion for a resolution to accept the Airport Layout Plan update. Ellis seconded the motion. At roll call vote, the motion passed 4 — 0, with Robnett being absent. d. Obstruction Removal project — Dean Beranek and Cathy Weikel, from Stanley Consultants, presented information concerning the project. Weikel said they had reviewed the original list of obstructions. She said they did a field survey of all of the obstructions and plotted them on a map. Several obstructions were eliminated from the original MOT list. The list is reduced to about 70 obstructions from the original list of 160. Beranek said photos were taken of all the obstructions. He had a notebook with all the photos available for the Commission to review. Weikel said that in some areas, the obstruction list listed "tree". In some of those areas, there are multiple trees that are obstructions. Depending on the height of the tree, it will probably have to be removed instead of trimmed. Beranek said that he found that some of the obstructions were already lighted. He said he would assume that if they already had lighting, that they meet FAA lighting standards. Mascari wanted to know if there were any obstructions that can not be fixed. Beranek said there were no obstructions that could not be mitigated, assuming the Commission had enough funding. The Commission discussed several obstructions, including the Old Capital Building, the flag pole on the Johnson County Courthouse, and the sign and lights at Hargrave-McEleney. Beranek said there are some legal questions that need to be resolved. The Zoning Ordinance needs to be interpreted by the City Attorney's office. O'Neil said Stanley should provide a list of the prioritized obstructions, including mitigation costs and a list of the owners of the obstructions. There was discussion concerning the United hangar. O'Neil said the building is considered an obstruction. The question is whether the building will be moved or demolished. Mascari wanted to know how far south it would have to move before it would no longer be an obstruction. Beranek said he would try to calculate that. O'Neil asked that Stanley get the revised obstruction list to him by December 9. e. Building E, meeting room policy- Terry Kruse, from the Civil Air Patrol, introduced himself and two other members of the CAP. He said they had an interest in the meeting room because they have been using it for their monthly staff meetings. He said he had no problem with the new policy except for the security charge for meetings after the normal building hours. He was hoping the Commission would wave the fee or allow them to supply their own security for locking the building. He said he would also like to discuss establishing a wing of the Civil Air Patrol in Iowa City. Kruse said Iowa City is centrally located in their region. One of the members is a police officer and could provide building security. The Commission discussed what type of security person would be accepted to make certain the building is locked. Some of the suggestions were someone who was bonded, a sworn officer, or military personnel. Kruse said the role of the CAP is changing and may be more involved with Homeland Defense. He said they have trained in Iowa City and would like to discuss locating the CAP wing in Iowa City. The Commission was in agreement that this should be pursued and they would see what it would take to provide a permanent home for the CAP. O'Neil and Dulek will amend the proposed policy and have it on the agenda for the next meeting. L Gurnett lease — Anderson said that the only item left in question was the premise liability insurance. O'Neil included an e-mail from the City's Risk Manager that said the insurance language had been resolved. Mascari made a motion for a resolution to accept the three-year lease with Don Gurnett. Thrower seconded the motion and at roll call vote, the motion passed 4 — 0, with Robnett being absent. g. Strategic planning — subcommittee report- Thrower said there is a proposal in the packet from Airport Business Solutions to assist the Commission with strategic and business planning. He said he thought the proposal was complete. The cost to the Commission would be $ 15,000. O'Neil said he discussed the proposal with the City Manager. O'Neil said the Commission has budgeted in the FY 2004 budget for consulting fees for the strategic plan, but that budget does not begin until July 2003. O'Neil said the Commission wanted to have a draft plan completed by February 2003. Mascari suggested requesting the money from Council so the Commission could get started right away. Thrower said he has discussed this with the Mayor and the Mayor is aware that the Commission would need funding for the project. Anderson will send the Mayor a letter, requesting funding. CHAIRPERSON'S REPORT: Anderson said he read an article about an airport in Colorado where the community received a large grant for projects at the airport. The main focus of the article was how important a general aviation airport is to a community. Dulek suggested sending a copy of the article to the City Manager to put in the Council packet. Anderson asked O'Neil if he knew the grounding cable was broken on the I OOLL pump? O'Neil said it had been repaired recently. He would check tomorrow to see if it was broken again. Anderson asked about lights for the wind tee? O'Neil said the Commission would need to install a new line if they wanted lights at the wind tee. The old line is grounded out somewhere. COMMISSION MEMBERS' REPORTS: Ellis said a study was just published that reviewed the economic value of general aviation. It shows the value of the time lost waiting for commercial service flights, as opposed to using general aviation. In Iowa, that amounted to over $23,000,000 last year. He said some of the information in the executive summary could be sent to the City Council. Mascari said it is important to go to the Council. He thought it is important that at least two members go and the Commission should rotate members. Mascari asked who hit the keypad for the north access gate? O'Neil said he noticed it had been hit right after the contractor who is installing the fiber optics cable was finished working in that area. He has informed the contractor that he needs to fix it. O'Neil said he has had several requests for a wash area like the Commission used to provide. This was discontinued when the water line to the United hangar broke This is something the Commission may want to discuss before next Spring. Termination letters were sent to several hangar tenants that did not provide all the information needed for the October I lease. The City Accounting Department will begin billing for the t - hangars on November I, 2002. Their system is not set up to charge daily interest as is required in the lease. An executive session will be scheduled at the next Commission meeting to discuss how the Commission wants to proceed with the Rob Nichols contract default. A final summary invoice and letter was sent to Double Chek for the fuel site. O'Neil said someone from Double Chek was suppose to be at this Commission meeting. The replacement filters from Double Chek have not arrived. O'Neil will hold the final payment until he receives the filters. The FAA has sent a notice, requiring all pilots to carry a photo I.D. Information about the Iowa City Airport can be found at airnay.com/airport/kiow O'Neil said he is in the process of selecting an engineering company for the Vertical Infrastructure Program grant. O'Neil said he met with Casey Cook to discuss a clarification on the appraisal for the Aviation Commerce Park. O'Neil circulated a letter from Casey Cook, concerning the cost of the last appraisal update. O'Neil said he met with Blum from H.R. Green to discuss the projects they are working on for Iowa City and to get an update on when they expected to complete the projects. O'Neil said he met with the City Manager and the Finance Department to discuss the budget proposal submitted by the Commission. As soon as the City Manager has a recommended budget for Council, O'Neil will send a copy to the Commission. The Council/Commission budget meeting is scheduled for January 28, 2003. O'Neil circulated a copy of part of the plans for the Mormon Trek South project. He explained that the project is to be bid in March 2003, with construction next summer. He said the plan called for paving up to Willow Creek, directly west of Runway 36. Grading for the rest of the road to Riverside Drive would be done with Phase 1 of the project. Grading through the RPZ for Runway 36 would meet safety standards. The rest of the road would not be paved until all the improvements were made to Runway 07/25. Mascari said the runway would not be closed and the road completed until the Runway 07 project is completed. Ellis asked if the Airport is being compensated for the Airport property where the road is being installed? O'Neil said this issue has not been discussed. O'Neil said there would be some security issues. The runway would have to be closed while construction is going on. Mascari said the FAA might require the Council to compensate the Airport for this property. O'Neil said this might be an issue the ACP subcommittee could discuss. It is an issue that is similar to land use in the ACP. Sometime in January of 2003, there will be a 300' construction crane at P & G for a few days. Jet Air is negotiating a contract with Hertz to have rental cars available at the Airport. SET NEXT MEETING: The next regular Airport Commission meeting is scheduled for December 12, 2002,at 5:45 p.m ADJOURNMENT: The meetin,Z was #jammed at 8:31 p.m. Chairperson