County, Hilton Head to contribute $1 million to airport noise buffer for Palmetto Hall
Beaufort County and Hilton Head Island will contribute $500,000 each to build a new barrier of trees and shrubs between Palmetto Hall and the island's airport along Beach City Road.
The new landscaping will be designed to buffer homes in the neighborhood from the noise of aircraft taking off and landing at the county-owned airport.
The planned buffer ends a years-long dispute between residents of Palmetto Hall and the county over plans to trim trees near the airport's flight path and eventually extend its runway to 5,000 feet.
County administrators, Palmetto Hall residents' Airport Committee and Hilton Head Island Town Council each approved the agreement this month following negotiations throughout almost all of 2015.
"We got in a room together and started talking about it and all of a sudden the pieces started to work together," said Jim Webb, a Palmetto Hall resident and leader of the community's Airport Committee. "We got to know each other better and trust each other better and therefore the end result was we can finally find a solution to this thing."
Per the agreement, Palmetto Hall has agreed to give the county permission to trim tress within the plantation that have grown too tall and into the Federal Aviation Administration's designated flight slopes for planes using the north end of the airport's runway, known as Runway 21.
The county will then petition the FAA to use an additional 300 feet of the existing Runway 21 that the airport is not currently allowed to use because of too-tall trees north of airport property.
The county and town also will each set aside $500,000 from the airport and town capital improvement funds to be used by Palmetto Hall to replant shorter trees and specimen trees along Beach City Road to buffer airport noise. Those trees must not be able to grow back into the flight paths, such as tall pines, the agreement notes.
"We think it's going to be adequate and the town is going to be instrumental in what goes on in there," Webb said. "We found there were so many different people focused on different aspects of (airport issues) that we really needed to solve one problem at a time and focus. Therefore the board chose to appoint five guys and say, 'All right, go solve this problem.' That's what we've focused on and gotten done."
This month the county hired Hilton Head contractor All Care Tree Surgery to trim 569 trees and remove another 377 trees north of airport property. The project will cost most than $712,000, including oversight by county airport consultant Talbert, Bright & Ellington Inc., according to county documents.
That project will clear the flight path for the existing 4,300-foot airport runway, but it does not address any additional trimming or removal that could be necessary for the airport's planned 700-foot runway extension, said deputy county administrator Josh Gruber on Tuesday. Work on that project is expected to begin late next year at the earliest, he added.
In October, the airport received a $13 million FAA grant to pay for safety improvements that include relocating a taxiway and trimming trees south of the runway off airport property. Those projects will begin after the New Year, Gruber said.
"This is not the runway extension -- we still have a lot of projects to finish before we start that," he said. "That's not a matter of if, but when, but anything beyond 5,000 feet is not approved by any of the governing bodies at this point."
Follow reporter Zach Murdock on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Zach and on Facebook at facebook.com/IPBGZach.
Related content:
- Hilton Head Airport gets $13 million to relocate taxiway, trim trees, Oct. 14, 2015
- New customer parking enhancements at Hilton Head Island Airport, March 17, 2015
- Number of Hilton Head Island Airport flights drop for fourth straight year, Jan. 16, 2015
This story was originally published December 29, 2015 at 3:09 PM with the headline "County, Hilton Head to contribute $1 million to airport noise buffer for Palmetto Hall ."