CAA: GA News, "City asks FAA to rethink stance on Florida airport"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Wednesday, October 31, 2001

City asks FAA to rethink stance 
Officials hope to persuade the agency to stop blocking the airport's
golf course lease. 
By EARLE KIMEL 
Herald-Tribune Newscoast


VENICE -- City officials have asked the FAA to drop its opposition to
the Lake Venice Golf Club lease and release almost $1.9 million in
federal grant money needed to repave runway 13/31.

City Manager George Hunt said he hoped that documentation sent in a
letter Oct. 25 will persuade the FAA to stop blocking the $160,000
annual lease for the golf course property, on Venice Municipal Airport
land.

Hunt said the city could hire Washington, D.C., lobbyists and work
through Congress to resolve the issue. But he said he would rather spend
the money on plans for a 94-acre industrial park and overall airport
expansion.

"Which is going to be more productive for the airport?" Hunt said. "Both
aren't going to happen. We don't have time for both.

"There's all sorts of exciting things we should be looking forward to on
this airport. Instead, we're bogged down with hours and hours of work
over an interpretation of $100,000 in a lease."

The letter is in response to an Aug. 22 request from Dean Stringer,
manager of the Federal Aviation Administration Orlando Airports District
Office, for written assurance that the airport is getting fair market
value on the lease.

Hunt said he doesn't expect a reply from the FAA for at least a month.

The city and the Venice Golf Association agreed on the $160,000 annual
lease in 1999. But the FAA contends the fair market rent for the
property, appraised at $2.3 million, is at least $276,000, or 12 percent
of the appraised value, including buildings and improvements.

The association has leased the golf course since 1958. The original
40-year lease has been renegotiated several times.

The city settled on the lower lease fee partly because the golf
association plans to install and operate a $1.4 million irrigation
system, and has spent $662,348 since 1988 on improvements and buildings.

The city rent figure is based on the value of the land and also gives
the golf association credit for building and maintaining the irrigation
system.

The FAA wants the city to increase the rent to include the value of the
buildings and doesn't consider the irrigation system as having any
value.

"How could you encourage a lessee to make any improvements to your
property if they knew that when they did it you were going to raise
their rent?" Hunt said.

Hunt's letter details a $2.6 million turnaround in airport earnings
since 1991, when the airport was $1.3 million in debt. This past fiscal
year, the airport was about $1.3 million in the black.

"If there's 25 major financial decision we've made in the last 10 years
that have turned the airport around $2.6 million, why are you picking
out one and saying you didn't get enough on that one," Hunt said.

Documents included from two appraisers also assert the 12 percent figure
is too high, and that a proper fair market charge for the golf course is
between 8 and 10 percent, based on an adjusted value of $1.8 million.

While the $1.9 million is needed to eventually repair the runway, it's
functioning fine right now, Hunt said.

   Post your opinion on this story in the CAA General Aviation Forum
http://www.californiaaviation.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?conf=DCConfID2

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