CAA: GA News, "Compromise reached on Casa Grande, Arizona airport leases"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tuesday, March 18, 2003

Compromise reached on CG airport leases
The Casa Grande (AZ) Dispatch


With Mayor Chuck Walton dissenting, the City Council voted 6-1 for changes,
some wanted by the Airport Advisory Board and some decided at the last
minute by the council.

At a meeting earlier this month, the advisory board presented its list of
what it thought the policy should include.

The council made two changes Monday night.

The first was to have leases run for 20 years, with an option for one
10-year extension.

The airport board had wanted 30-year terms with one 10-year renewal.

The second council change was that reviews of lease rates would be every
five years, based on current market rates.

The airport board had agreed that lease rates should increase every five
years by four cents a square foot.

The council left the other airport board agreements in place.

Those are:

   * Land leases will be based on pad size, including the total area of the
building and a surrounding area not to exceed 125 percent of the building's
size.

As an example, the airport board said, a 5,000-square-foot building would be
charged no more than 11,250 square feet.

   * Pad lease rates will start at 20 cents per square foot yearly.

   * The private leases would be only in the airport area bounded by Aero
Drive, Taxiway E, Piper Avenue and Taxiway C.

   * At the end of the lease the city gets ownership.

Monday night, City Attorney Kay Bigelow said the leases should be drawn so
that the city owns the buildings from the start, which would take them off
of the tax rolls, giving the pilot owners another subsidized break.

She said there should be clauses for payment to the owner if for some
legitimate reason he has to break the lease earlier, allowing him to gain
some of the value.

   * Tenants will be responsible for infrastructure only for their
buildings. If improvements are made by the city that affect all of an area,
charges would be pro rata.

   * Tenants will be responsible for building, fire and zoning codes and
compliance with any other federal, state or city regulations.

It was added that the airport manager will meet with the planning and zoning
officials on landscaping issues, drawing up regulations specifically for
airport areas.

   * It will be spelled out that the lease policy is only for private,
non-commercial land uses.

   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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