FAA Wants Fee from Tennis Court on Pensacola Airport Land

Posted on Tue, Feb. 24, 2004 

FAA Wants Fee from Tennis Court on Pensacola Airport
Land
Associated Press


PENSACOLA, Fla. - The Federal Aviation Administration
wants Pensacola to collect an annual rent - an amount
that could reach nearly $80,000 - for a city tennis
court on city airport property.

Old maps show the site of the 16-acre Roger Scott
Tennis Center on land belonging to the Pensacola
Regional Airport, City Attorney Don Caton told a City
Council committee.

"We can't go back and say `Oops, a mistake was made,'
" Caton said Monday

Federal grant agreements with the FAA require all
airport property be used to benefit the airport,
according to a letter from FAA program manager William
E. Farris.

"While we can certainly appreciate the airport's
desire to provide goodwill to the community, the
airport is obligated to use its existing property to
satisfy aviation demand or generate revenue to make
the airport as self-sustaining as possible," Farris
wrote.

Caton recommended that the city cough up the $77,529
annual payment rather than sue the FAA because losing
in court could cost at least $5 million.

The FAA also wants the city to take another costly
step by relocating recreational ball fields near the
airport based on a 1947 agreement that transferred the
then-surplus federal land to the city.

The agreement allows temporary use for
non-aeronuatical purposes, but Farris wrote that the
land appears to be in a prime area for aviation
ventures and that the city should make plans for such
use.

Hundreds of adults and children use the 17-acre area
for baseball, softball and football.

"We would have to acquire land, and I don't know where
we would get it," Councilman Jack Nobles said.

 

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