A small airport west of Ozark known as Air Park South is being sold by Springfield-Branson National Airport, and proceeds from the eventual sale will be used to increase space for general aviation planes at the Springfield airport.
Airport Director Brian Weiler said the Federal Aviation Administrationand Missouri Department of Transportation agreed to let the airport use funds from the land sale for general aviation improvements because the Springfield airport initially used FAA and MoDOT funds to buy about 240 acres west of U.S. 65 in 2001.
The money at the time was intended to improve access for general aviation aircraft. The site includes a rough 3,000-foot asphalt runway that’s too short to accommodate business jets. The airport tried to buy an additional 36 acres to extend the runway to 5,000 feet but the property owners declined to sell.
Springfield-Branson National Airport spokesman Kent Boyd said the airport in 2004 initiated eminent domain proceedings to determine what the 36 acres was worth.
“They came back with a value of $220,000 an acre, which if you do the math comes out to a really big number — about $8 million,” he said. “We’d previously spent $5 million for more than 200 acres. The additional acres just didn’t work.”
In 2006 the Springfield-Branson National Airport Board voted to put the land up for sale. After a lengthy review by MoDOT and the FAA — including posting the proposed land sale for public comment on the Federal Register — both agencies agreed to let the airport use sale proceeds as proposed, for the general aviation improvements.
General aviation aircraft include privately owned light planes and business jets. Weiler said the airport currently accommodates 12 single-engine planes, 25 multi-engine private aircraft and 18 business jets.
He said there’s been a list of airplane owners waiting for hangar space to open up. The land sale should help remedy that.
“We do know there is additional demand out there,” Weiler said.
Proceeds from the land sale could be used to build additional hangars, develop roads and taxiways and develop sites that could be leased to private owners who might want to build their own hangars.
“We are in the early stages of determining where that money would go,” Weiler said. “I really want to see some options.”
Weiler said the airport’s Master Plan has identified three possible locations on airport grounds where additional general aviation facilities could be developed.
Because there’s been a longstanding need for more accommodations, Weiler said the airport could pursue other sources of federal funding to make those improvements while the airport waits for someone to buy the old airport land near Ozark.
More information about the site is available on the Web athttp://www.flyspringfield.com /land.
