Report on 7/15/96 Planning, Transportation, Health and Welfare Committee meeting The meeting was attended by Frank McMichael, Charles Peterson, Joel Bornstein, Diana Scully, Tim Scully, Dick Ahrens and his wife, Trey Loy, Budge Campbell, Norma Leone and a woman from the budget office whose name I was unable to get. We met from 1:30pm to 4pm. Tim handed out a summary of the issues the Ad Hoc Committee planned to report on (a copy is appended). After discussion, we agreed to go over the smaller items first, saving the hangar report for last. Noise Abatement --------------- Tim presented the status of the revised noise policy and handed out copies of the revised policy. Budge said that he has no staff to review the policy. Charles said that we can proceed with the community meeting, but should make sure the community knows that these are still just recommendations from the Ad Hoc Committee to the County. Budge said we should recommend to the Board and not Public Works. He also suggested that the Planning Department should review this. Trey reminded everyone that noise complaints will be made public, and commented that it was a funny situation because the offending pilot often can't be identified, but the complainer is identified. The final conclusion was that the Ad Hoc Committee should report on the noise policy to the PTH&W (Planning, Transportation, Health and Welfare) committee after it has held the community meeting, probably in September. GPS Instrument Approach ----------------------- Tim handed out copies of the 5/26/96 briefing package on the GPS instrument approach issue and briefly touched on the highlights. Budge said that some trees off the airport had been trimmed, but that few non-airport trees had been cut. Frank asked if there was enough activity at the airport to justify having an instrument approach - he wants more data on need. Budge said that only instrument rated pilots could use the approach and that relatively few pilots are qualified. Joel said that 60% of licensed pilots have instrument ratings (Joel is an instrument instructor). Budge questioned whether a GPS approach is best - how many pilots have the equipment. Tim reminded him that we did a survey of over 125 airport users and got back a strong majority response in favor of a GPS approach. The cost of approach certified GPS equipment is coming down and the FAA has announced plans to phase out older forms of navigation equipment. Budge suggested that flight instructors from Ukiah and Santa Rosa would do practice approaches at Little River. Budge is a flight instructor. Joel said that Ukiah and Santa Rosa have their own instrument approaches. Tim said that we could, if necessary, ask Oakland Center to discourage practice approaches at Little River. We all agreed that more data needs to be collected on the issues surrounding the GPS approach. Non-Aviation Uses ----------------- Tim very briefly reported on the correspondence with Keith Paulson. Budge suggested using discretion in developing the airport. Is self-storage the best revenue generator? Budge would like to see an ad for proposals run in the paper. What about an avionics shop, aircraft repair shop or paint shop? Frank prefers to see airport property used for aviation uses. Trey mentioned the fragile ecosystem and suggested that we should review the specific location on the airport of such development - he thinks the currently designated areas were not well chosen. We looked at the Airport Master Plan to identify the parcels set aside for non-aviation use. Charles said he still is trying to find funds for the economic development study that should be done before development proceeds. Frank said - don't do development that could happen anywhere, save the limited resources at the airport for development related to the airport. Frank said that one of the original reasons the committee was formed was to try to balance the airport budget. Careful development could help with that. He'd like to see the hangar issue settled, for example, because he believes that more private hangars offer one of the best chances for increasing airport revene. Grass Planting -------------- Tim handed out copies of Susan Winding's report on the meeting with Greg Guisti and Dick Ahren's email conversation with him. Frank said that the Board has worked with Greg in the past and the results have been good. Budge said the grass may not grow. Trey brought up the drainage issue. Budge said that they haven't been grading at the airport for some time, and there has been some erosion, resulting in an uneven surface next to the runway. He's concerned that if anyone veers off the runway and onto the dirt, they'll have problems. Smoothing out the results of erosion and keeping grass down were the two reasons why they used to grade. There was general agreement that it was ok for Greg to plant three small test plots of kovar sheep fescue (grass), provinding that there is no cost to the County. Greg had said he'd donate the seed for the initial test plots and his labor to plant them. Weather Observations -------------------- Tim handed out copies of the weather service's Supplemental Aviation Weather Reporting Station brochure and explained that the Ad Hoc Committee recommends that Little River Airport become a SAWRS site. He explained that although the College of the Redwoods in Ft. Bragg sends partial weather observations to NOAA, they do not report cloud height, type or percentage of cover, and they do not report on weekends. The chief forcaster in NOAA's Eureka office said that SAWRS data would be very helpful in improving their forecasts in general and that it would also satisfy a standing request from Oakland Center for aviation weather in the region. Budge expressed concerns about liability. He also said that he believed it is outside the scope of the airport supervisor's duties at an uncontrolled airport. Tim said that the Little River Pilots Association might be willing to pay the incremental cost for insurance (which should be small) and asked if he could contact Risk Management to get a cost estimate. Charles said no - let the County handle this. Let the lawyers and insurance companies determine liability. Don't drib and drab requests to busy County offices. Budge said he wants to leave the weather decisions up to the pilot. Joel said the decision is always up to the pilot and pointed out that it is very common for uncontrolled airport operators to give the altimeter setting. Budge agreed about the altimeter setting but said that more detailed weather observations are unusual at uncontrolled fields. We agreed that further research is appropriate. Pond Cleanup ------------ Tim expressed thanks for the cleanup of downed trees in the pond - a project that is underway by the Conservation Camp crew. Charles referred back to Susan Winding's letter and asked who owns the dam that she is worried about. Tim said he thinks the Little River Inn does. Charles asked us to please find out and notify them that there might be a problem. Timber Harvest -------------- Trey thanked the supervisors for writing to the FAA about the timber harvest. Hangar Report ------------- Tim handed out additional copies of the hangar report that had earlier been mailed to Charles, Frank and Budge. He also gave Norma a copy. Charles said that we should routinely bring a copy for the clerk. Tim briefly summarized the report. Budge said that the original minute order was Norman's decision. Charles said that he felt that fair market price was fine. Frank said the County needs the income stream from the hangars. He pointed out that additional private hangars are one of the best chances for increasing airport revenue. He said that he'd like to see a reversion clause in agreements to build new hangars, but that there'd still need to be a balance between an income stream and building equity. We talked about reversion periods ranging from 25 to 99 years. A 25 year period would leave little income stream, while a 99 year period would be rather long for a metal building. Perhaps 50-75 year reversion? Commercial users could amortize faster - perhaps 20-25 years. Charles said he is not interested in having the County buy the existing hangars. He's not sure about the proper reversion period for new hangars. He asked about the maintenance assumption in the report, and once he understood that it was a total of $5000 per year for all 16 hangars, he said it was fine. Frank recommended rescinding the minute order. Charles concurred. Charles said he is conceptually in favor of public-private partnerships for building additional hangars. He suggested checking with the ALUC. Trey said he favors studying where new hangars will be located - the existing planned location may not be best. Frank said he wants to optimize cash flow. More hangars are the best opportunity to increase cash flow. Budge asked the Board to be proactive about hangars. Then he raised the issue of Dr. Bergin's fee protest. Charles said that undoing the minute order should be easy - but he'd also like to see agreement on a hangar policy. Budge walked through the policy section of the hangar report and pointed out a few changes he'd like to see. One issue was whether hangar owners could have furniture in their hangars or if they could store some personal possessions. The conclusion was that these are premitted as long as they are non-commercial and as long as they do not impede the primary purpose of the hangar - the storage of aircraft. Living in a hangar is not ok. The rental of a hangar will require an airport permit if it is longer and more formal then letting someone use a hangar for a short time while your aircraft is gone. Frank doesn't want non-aircraft owners to own a hangar. Budge started a discussion of garbage disposal. He wants all hangar owners to pay a portion of the cost of the dumpster which the County has on the airport. He said that a rule requiring hangar owners to take garbage elsewhere is unenforcable. Frank said the fee should be built into the hangar rent and should be adjusted if the dumpster cost changes. Budge said he wants the liability insurance issue reviewed by Risk Management. Budge wants a 911 key-safe set up so that 911 responders can get into hangars. Formalizing the Committee ------------------------- Charles and Frank agreed that they want the committee to be made formal, but that the actual appointments will be deferred until after January 1997. They want the Ad Hoc Committee to work on the by-laws for the official committee, submitting a draft in September (the next PTH&W meeting). The by-laws should, among other things, specify the procedure by which we will give public notice of the agenda of our meetings for Brown Act purposes. Charles said he plans to appoint: - 2 users of the airport (pilots or FBOs) - 2 non-user neighbors - 1 non-user, non-neighbor business person Tim suggested that 7 members might be better because it is sometimes hard to get every member to attend every meeting. Charles said he's open to that if enough people can be found who are willing to serve. Frank asked if the FEC statement will have to be filled out by committee members. Charles said that County Counsel will look at this, but he believes it probably will be required because the committee is likely, in the future, to be making recommendations on zoning or land use issues that would have financial impact. Tim asked if every member would have to file, or only those with possible conflicts. Norma said she believes it is an all-or-none proposition. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ad Hoc Airport Advisory Committee Report Summary 7/15/96 Here is a very brief summary of the reports we have on various issues at Little River Airport. Private Hangars --------------- We have worked for many months on the issues surrounding privately owned hangars at Little River and have unanimously agreed on the report which is presented here today. Briefly, this report suggests that the current policy, which ends private hangar leases in 1999, should be changed if funds are not available to buy the hangars at fair market price. If funds are likely to become available, and if the County deems purchase of the hangars to be desirable, we suggest changing the policy to one of County first right of refusal when a hangar owner decides to sell. We also point out that the purchase of additional new hangars would be a better investment (and better for airport users), if other public policy reasons do not dominate. These and other points are discussed in detail in the report we mailed to you. Noise Abatement --------------- We have reviewed the noise abatement policy we developed last year and have modified it to account for comments from the FAA and CalTrans. With your concurrence, we plan to hold a community meeting in September to review the revised policy with the community. At the same time we plan to present the GPS instrument approach issue. GPS Instrument Approach ----------------------- We have begun work on the GPS instrument approach issue and hope to have it prepared for the proposed September meeting. The initial results of our research indicate that the FAR 77 approach surface for the runway(s) with non-precision instrument approaches will change from a 20:1 slope to a 34:1 slope (see FAR 77.25 and AC 150/5300-13 Table 2-4). This change only affects the approach end of the runway, the opposite end can remain at a 20:1 slope if it doesn't also have an instrument approach. So far, there seems to be agreement that an instrument approach would improve safety at Little River. The concerns raised by non-pilots so far include: - will Albion Airport Road have to be relocated, as the Master Plan suggests? (we believe the answer is "no" but are seeking written confirmation of this) - will there be new zoning restrictions on height? - will trees need to be cut down? - would the proposed instrument approach be useful? The committee is researching these and other aspects of the proposed approach. Non-Aviation Uses ----------------- We received a letter from Keith Paulson regarding non-aviation development and wrote back to collect more information from him - we haven't yet received an answer. Conservation Camp Crews ----------------------- Thank you for asking the Conservation Camp crew to clean up the pond at the West end of the runway. The work is in progress. Grasses and Trees ----------------- We have been doing research regarding tree and grass planting on the airport and recommend that Greg Guisti of UC Davis be permitted to plant 3 small test beds of Kovar Sheep Fescue (a short sturdy grass). Weather Station --------------- We recommend that the airport be set up as a SAWRS (Supplemental Aviation Weather Reporting Station). This would benefit the community at large by improving the quality of local weather forecasts. We should have a letter from the Eureka office of the weather service in a week or two which will explain this. Three things are needed to establish a SAWRS at Little River. About $2000 worth of additional equipment will be needed. This might be donated by the LRAPA. The existing wind sensor needs to be relocated. And the task of making hourly weather observations will need to be added to the airport supervisor's duties, perhaps when the contract comes up for renewal. LRAPA ----- The Little River Airport Pilots Association is incorporating as a chapter of the California Pilots Association. The group expects to be able to raise funds for some airport improvements and will donate some volunteer labor for some airport improvement and maintenance projects (with the approval of Public Works). Ten volunteers recently spent three work weekends stripping and painting the exterior of the airport office building, using paint purchased by the pilots.