Airport gets approval to buy air
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SANDPOINT — At the May 11 Bonner County commissioners’ regular business meeting, approval was authorized to allocate $24,000 to fund appraisals on identified parcels at both Sandpoint and Priest River airports for navigation easements. Commissioner Dan McDonald referred to these appraisals as “buying air.”
Bonner County Airports Manager Dave Schuck said each airport has two runway approaches and properties with trees growing up into the flight paths are a hazard to navigation and a threat to public safety. As part of the five-year airport plan for improvements to both airports having navigable air is critically important.
The fund request was approved. Then, at the regular meeting on May 18, two requests for funding were approved by officials for the airports. One was for $$23,930 and the second for $7,920. Schuck said that the total funds requested on May 11 and on May 18 will be mostly reimbursed by the FAA’s AIP (Aeronautical Information Publication) Funds.
“With the FAA’s new plan to rebuild our runways at both airports they need to first, before they put those millions of dollars into the runways, need to make sure we’re adhering to all of the current safety standards,” Schuck said. “This means clearing out those pathways or glide paths into the runway and buying those navigation easements over those properties so someone can’t put in a 120 foot ham radio tower in that area and cause a hazard to navigation. Or a tall condo or trees or things like that.”
When asked by a member of the public how the appraisal was determined, Schuck said that an appraiser values the property without the easement first, the appraiser then figures out the value with the easement. The property owner is paid the difference between those two amounts.
“Properties closer to the end of the runway will be more adversely affected by the easement than properties that are further away and already have height restrictions in place because of code. Values vary greatly,” he said.
On Sunday, May 16 there were two Letters to the Editor published in this newspaper regarding these navigational easements. David and Patti Howell said that they have owned their house near the airport since 2005. They had received notice from the airport “demanding” an easement and stating that trees on their property would need to be removed.
“These trees supply us with safety, shade, privacy and a sound barrier to the airport and the nearby shopping center. Removing these trees will devalue our property by thousands of dollars,” they wrote.
In an email conversation after the May 18 meeting, when asked what was different about FAA regulations regarding navigation easements today compared to when the Howell’s bought their house Schuck said he didn’t know.
“I became manager in 2008, so I am not sure why the airport did not offer to buy an easement in 2004. It could be that the trees in question have grown up into the proposed easement airspace in the intervening 16 years,” he wrote.
To the question as to who is responsible for removing the trees, Schuck replied, “The County will buy the rights to manage the airspace above a defined height above the ground which includes lowering or removing the treetops that penetrate that airspace.
“In the case of removal, the county pays a qualified contractor to remove the tree, grind the stump below the surrounding ground level, and apply topsoil and hydro-seed as necessary to return the area to a natural state. There is no cost to the property owner.”
There are master plans for both Sandpoint and Priest River airports. They show all planned improvements for the next fifteen years and are available to the public either on the Bonner County website or at Schuck’s office at the Sandpoint airport.