An Airport Overlay District (AOD) was back on the agenda for the Warsaw Board of Aviation Commissioners Monday, which the city hopes the county will be willing to financially contribute toward.
Robert LaFayette, section manager aviation planning at CHA Consulting, the engineering and consulting firm for the airport and board, presented a general services task order to them.
“I know that you guys are aware of the development that popped up south of runway 18/36, so as part of the general services task order, we developed some exhibits to assist with the coordination of the development restrictions and regulations associated with the Rainbow Drive development off the south end of runway 18. This included the exhibit development and coordination with the city of Warsaw administration and city planning. And that coordination was associated with the development of an avigation easement associated with unowned land south of the airport,” he said.
A storage unit was being developed south of runway 18/36, he said. Airport Manager Nick King became aware of it. “We did a significant amount of coordination with the city, city planning, and what that resulted in was a series of exhibits, some education and then ultimately that culminated in an avigation easement over that property so that development did not happen within the safety critical areas of runway 18, specifically the runway protection zone,” LaFayette said.
King said they were able to help the developer who was able to build what they originally wanted to build, but the buildings just had to be shifted to the west a few feet. “It worked out and we now own this avigation easement so we will not have this issue ever again,” he said.
CHA invoiced the board for $6,000 for preparation of documents related to the avigation easement, which the board approved. King said the easement has already been purchased for $45,000 from the landowner and recorded, with money for the purchase coming from the Northern TIF fund.
LaFayette said the work on and purchase for the avigation easement was critical because of the ongoing runway projects. He said the mayor asked that they never have this issue again because it ended up resulting in a $45,000 check being written by the city.
“So, through discussions with the mayor and Nick, and the city council and city planning, there’s another task order that’s going to be introduced under new business. That is the development of an (AOD), which is a zoning ordinance for the city and county to be able to help regulate some of the development immediately adjacent or near to the airport so that situations specifically like this don’t happen again in the future,” LaFayette said.
Because the airport impacts both city and county, and because the board runs the airport, LaFayette said, “There’s a lot of different variables at play. And so, specifically what the mayor asked for, was a new (AOD) with proper training, education and implementation of any new revised updates to any existing zoning ordinances, or city code that is currently in place."
Through the process, the city was not aware of any existing city code that had any land use regulations or land use protections in or around the airport. CHA had conversations with the mayor, city council and planning of what’s currently in place, what they’re going to do, how they’re going to do it and what it’ll look like, he said.
“During that discussion, there was a little bit of education from the consultant side to the city side that there are current city codes that have zoning ordinances in place for the airport. Both city council and the mayor became aware of that during that ‘kickoff meeting,’” LaFayette said. “So the way that this task order kind of happened changed a little bit because in those existing codes, it says that any existing development in or around the airport basically has to go through the Warsaw Airport Board prior to any development taking place. And what this means is that the south side development should have gone through board approval prior to being developed, and it did not.”
He said that changed the task order because while the city wants to put the AOD in place, they questioned what they should do in the meantime. “So what we do in the meantime is a little bit of education for city planning, let them know what is the existing ordinance, and update a little bit of the maps - or tools - the city has for developers, prior to implementing any development around the airport.”
He said a lot of the ordinances date back to the 1970s, and a lot of the mapping is state code mapping, which also dates back to the 1970s. The city planner asked that those maps be updated to help developers in and around the city adhere to the existing city code until “at the time that we can get implemented a revised city and county zoning ordinance, that is actually less restrictive, to be completely honest, than what’s currently in place now.”
Explaining the $150,000 that would be needed to create the AOD, LaFayette said of $100,000 of that, $50,000 would be funded by the city and $50,000 would be funded by the county. “And what that is, is the training, it’s the development of the (AOD), it’s the development of the zoning restrictions, it is coordination with the city administration, city planning and county planning. The process and implementation of this new AOD. And what that means is, the city uses their tech review dashboards - so being able to integrate the new overlay district in with the current business model of the city. And the county uses GIS, so making sure that we have and develop the GIS shape files so that the county has their tools necessary to be able to implement any new changes to the (AOD),” he stated.
As they were going through the scoping and updates to the mapping, LaFayette said they came across that there are four seaplane bases in and around the county and the city. The third $50,000 of the $150,000 is an hourly not-to-exceed addendum at the discretion of the county if the county wants to evaluate the seaplane bases as well.
The four seaplane bases are on Winona, Tippecanoe, Webster and Barbee lakes.
Board President Jay Rigdon asked if the county was on board with all of this. King said he preliminarily spoke with Kosciusko County Area Plan Director Matt Sandy and will speak with him and the county zoning board about the details. King said he felt it was prudent to speak to the aviation board first before going to the county.
Rigdon asked LaFayette if it was necessary. “Based on the recent development, it is absolutely necessary,” LaFayette responded.
The board approved the CHA task order totaling $150,000; with $100,000 of that for the AOD - $50,000 from the airport and $50,000 from the county; and King will work with the county to see if they would be interested in pursuing the additional work for the heliports and seaports.
LaFayette also reported the runway 27 obstruction mitigation (power line lowering) project is still on schedule. Construction staging is mobilizing, and AEP is still planning for late fall 2024 construction. The board approved CHA’s invoice of $1,535.83, with $76.79 of that being the local share, related to the project.
Another invoice, for $60,424.32, which is 100% state share, was presented for work completed on corporate taxilane E-1. LaFayette said construction work is still in progress. The target date for substantial completion is by Oct. 2. The board approved the invoice.
On taxiway B rehabilitation, LaFayette reported the grant from the FAA was received in early September. He just needed board approval for Rigdon’s signature on the Airport Improvement Program request so the draw down on the grant can begin for the previously approved invoices for design and planning phase services. The board approved the request.