FAA, county at odds over airport access

SANDPOINT - The Federal Aviation Administra-tion is warning Bonner County officials it will cease funding improvements at Sandpoint Airport if it continues to cater to private interests.

But the threat does not appear to have much loft with county commissioners.

“I don't really think it's substantiated with facts,” Commission Chairman Lewis Rich said shortly after the FAA's complaint surfaced.

FAA officials in Seattle put commissioners on notice last month that it would stop funding improvements at the airport unless it addressed a number of access and land-use issues. The FAA called upon the county to ban any new through-the-fence access at the airport, object to any adjacent residential development and prohibit midfield runway access.

The demands, however, come a year after the city approved a 44-unit, fly-in residential community next to the airport called SilverWing. Members of the county's Sandpoint Airport Advisory Board enthusiastically supported the project.

SilverWing has midfield runway access, as does neighboring plane manufacturer Quest Aircraft Co. The FAA objects to mid-runway access because it increases the potential for dangerous incursions and is insisting the county relocate those access points to the runway's end.

But Rich said the midfield access is solidified through a binding legal agreement and cannot be disturbed.

“We can't take that away,” he said. “It was agreed to a long time ago. It went through the courts and it is what it is.”

The FAA, which has contributed more than $5.3 million in airport improvements since 1982, is also balking at funding a taxiway on the west side of the airport and is encouraging the county find a way for such an improvement to be funded privately.

“We have conveyed to the County on several occasions that we do not support public or federally funding of the west taxiway since the taxiway would primarily support private off airport entities, such as Quest Aircraft and Silverwings,” Carol Key, Seattle Airports District Office manager, said in a March 13 letter to Rich.

Rich maintains that the FAA participated in the development of the taxiway and suspects the hard-line stance is a result of change of leadership at the FAA's regional office.

“All the things that have been done were done in conjunction with FAA requirements to get it to the point where it is now,” Rich said.