islandpacket.com - The Island Packet Online

• Archive Search

Search Everything in the Lowcountry and the Coastal Empire.

Airport officials ground idea for two-airport panel

Comment on this | | | | | | | |

Beaufort County airport officials are abandoning efforts to create a new governing body to oversee the two county airports, a proposal that had made some Hilton Head Island elected officials uneasy.

Meanwhile, the town says it is pushing ahead with a plan to change the zoning of the Hilton Head Island Airport to prevent the county from lengthening its runway. Under the proposed zoning change, the airport would only be allowed at its current site if the runway remains at 4,300 feet.

The Aviation Advisory Board, which advises the Beaufort County Council on matters concerning the Hilton Head and Lady's Island airports, earlier this year started researching what the benefits and drawbacks would be to creating a new governing body, and whether it would help the airports run more efficiently.

The board was preparing to send questionnaires to other airports around the area, but hadn't gotten that far in the study.

Advisory board chairman Dave Ames said the board backed off the idea because it wasn't worth upsetting Hilton Head officials. But the issue underlines the tensions that continue between the town, county and aviation officials over the airport.

Even the preliminary discussions about the idea of a new governing board upset Mayor Tom Peeples and members of Hilton Head Town Council and caused them to earlier this month revive the idea of the zoning change out of fear that the airport could slip out of local control.

Researching a new airport authority is much less important than maintaining a relationship with Hilton Head, Ames said. He and other members also said they think the current set-up with an advisory board is working well.

Board members said they were doing the research purely for academic reasons to see what benefit could be derived for the county, such as taxing authority or the ability to set rates.

The county and town had been trying to compromise by proposing both sides sign an agreement that said no major changes would be made at the facility without the town's consent.

But Peeples said the town will still go ahead with amending its Land Management Ordinance to make it much more difficult, though not impossible, for the airport to make any major expansions without town approval.

"I'm really glad they did (drop the idea), but there's a strong feeling at least among the individual council members that the council really needs to have a say in the future of the airport," Peeples said.

"That is the primary purpose of putting this in place -- so that the Town of Hilton Head Island has a absolute vested say in what goes on at the airport."

Public discussions about the proposed zoning change will resume at the Nov. 7 Planning Commission meeting.

| | | | | | |