Nick King, Warsaw Municipal Airport manager, is working with the airport’s engineering consulting firm, CHA, on an Airport Overlay District (AOD) that could effect future tall structures and construction countywide.
As the city is developing to the north, and to assist the city and county planners, developers and contractors with that, “I think it is prudent at this time that we look at doing what is called an Airport Overlay District,” King told the Warsaw Board of Aviation Commissioners at their meeting Tuesday.
He described the AOD as a wedding cake turned upside down.
“The top tier is the closest to the airport and it goes to the surface, and then as you get farther away, it goes up a little bit and it just continues to go out and up away from the airport. It maps out where runway protection zones are, Part 77 airspace, which is the protected airspace. A lot of people don’t realize FAA protects the airspace within 20,000 feet of an airport our size,” King said.
Without an AOD, building projects, especially those that may use cranes in the construction process, may be delayed if the developers don’t know they need to file paperwork with the FAA to do an aeronomic study.
“What the AOD will do is basically put a fictious layer over the top of the airport, the city and the county and it will be a planning platform that the city planner and county planner can use when they’re issuing building permits or construction permits. And then it will streamline the process for the contractor,” King said.
Board President Jay Rigdon asked, “We’re not talking about creating any new rules or regulations, you’re creating essentially a 3D GIS map, correct?” King said that was correct, but it would not only make the airport’s job easier, but also keep pilots and crane operators safer.
The airport has had a 2D tall structures map before, but a 3D map would depict the protected airspace better.
“The map that we have though is not an ordinance. The Airport Overlay District would be a city and a county ordinance,” King said.
Rigdon said he was talking about creating a new ordinance then. King said it was not creating new, but was “defining what the Part 77 airspace over our airport is.” Rigdon said the FAA already defines that airspace, so all they could do was have regulations that said they were going to adopt a map that shows what the feds do for the airport, unless “we’re doing something on top of what the feds are doing.”
“So we’re doing that,” King said, “and then where we’re going beyond what the feds are doing, is once this is created, if you are underneath that airspace, you will not need to fill out an airspace obstruction form with the OE/AAA (obstruction evaluation/airport airspace analysis) website. This will make it easier on the contractors to be able to get their building permits and get their projects done.”
Currently, he said, any building, crane or anything that goes up in the air either temporarily or permanently within 20,000 feet of the airport must have the airspace study done.
Rigdon asked what the cost of doing an AOD would be. King said he didn’t have the final task order from CHA yet, but it’s estimated to cost around $100,000.
“We would be partnering with the county on this, that’s why I wanted to talk to you guys about this, and I’m also going to talk to county to see if they would be chipping in on this project with us, to split it 50/50,” King said.
King then presented another task order he was working on with CHA.
“I am working on another state grant. I don’t have the details yet, so I don’t want to spill the beans too much yet, but if we are awarded this grant, it would be at the end of this year most likely, beginning of next year before we would be able to tap into those funds,” King said. “We’re asking for $1 million in matching funds to do a mill and overlay of runway 9-27. That’s the most requested update at the airport.”
He said that asphalt is now the oldest on the field and is very used.
The task order with CHA would be for CHA to do a design and bid package.
“This would again be a project that we would potentially partner with some state entities, as well as the county, next year and then the airport would be paying CHA in the ballpark of around $150,000 to design the mill and overlay and put the bid pack together, to go out to bid hopefully this fall or winter so we could start that project when the grant money is available next year,” King said.
The board also reviewed King’s proposed budget for 2025, which he will present to the Warsaw Common Council Monday.
The capital improvement (depreciation) fund is proposed at $185,000 for the 9-27 overlay project. The budget is not taxpayer funded, but comes from a portion of the airport’s fuel earnings.
In the airport’s other budget, King proposes a total of $1,934,685, an 8.97% increase over 2024’s $1,775,000.
In other business, the board approved:
• An invoice from CHA for the runway 27 obstruction mitigation (power line lowering) project for $3,828.37. The federal share is $3,445.53, with the state and local shares each being $191.42.
Ranjit Bhandari, civil engineer with CHA Consulting Inc., said they’re still in talks with AEP on the project and the construction timeline still includes a completion date in 2024.
Board member Dan Robinson later asked when AEP was physically starting the power line lowering project. King said the tentative start date is the beginning of September, with the project completed by Thanksgiving, weather permitting.
“The reason this is complex is we have to coordinate with the Department of Energy. So what most people don’t understand is that those power lines are two separate circuits that we are interrupting,” King said. “So there’s basically two different electrical grids that will be impacted when that power line goes down.”
There’s also been issues with the amount of rainfall and the Indiana bat migration patterns. Additionally, those power lines can’t be taken out of service during the middle of summer or winter due to the extra load from air conditioners, furnaces, electric fireplaces, etc.
• An invoice from CHA for the corporate taxi lane E1 rehabilitation/reconstruction for $19,752.18.
“This is the grant that we were awarded that I went after pretty hard last year for $2 million for the taxi lane construction, so this will be all state funds,” King said.
Bhandari reported the state grant dollar application was approved and the pay order was issued in July. Phend & Brown began construction on July 29. The targeted substantial completion date is Oct. 2.
• An invoice from CHA for taxiway B rehabilitation for $39,340, with the federal share being $35,406 and the state and local matches being $1,967 each, once the grant funds for the rehabilitation project has been received.
Bhandari said the invoice has been held by CHA the last couple months.
King explained, “This is the grant we had applied for last fall, and then the FAA found that when we did our ALP (Airport Layout Plan) in 2019, they forgot to send us a letter stating that they had received our forecast. Due to their error, they wanted us to update our forecast, and so they amended this grant for taxiway B for us to do an amended forecast with this grant. That held the grant up.”
He said they were told the grant should be issued within the next couple weeks.
“This motion is so that Jay can sign that initial pay request once the grant has been issued and we can start drawing down from that grant,” King said.
Robinson asked, “So because they didn’t do their job, we had to pay a second time to give them a forecast?”
“Yep,” King said, adding that the forecast would be covered under the grant.
• By a vote of 3-1, with Rigdon opposed, for the airport to participate in the city’s Deer Task Force. King will work with the Deer Task Force on the details.
• The purchase of a Chevy Tahoe for $51,795; a Bobcat L95 Compact Wheel Loader for $49,112.59 after trade-in; and a used forklift from Sun Equipment Inc. for $14,900. King has the funds in his budget.
• Rescheduling the September board meeting from Sept. 10 to 5:15 p.m. Sept. 16 at City Hall.