"Agency postpones decision on California City Municipal Airport lease, land sale requests"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Agency postpones decision on lease, land sale requests
By ALLISON GATLIN 
The Antelope Valley (CA) Press


CALIFORNIA CITY - Two proposals - one to expand an existing aviation
business and one for a modular-home manufacturer - are competing for
approval by the California City Redevelopment Agency.

The proposals, which involve agency land adjacent to California City
Municipal Airport, came up for discussion Tuesday night, but members of the
City Council, sitting as the Redevelopment Agency board, decided to postpone
a decision until more details could be presented. The proposals will be
re-examined Feb. 15 at the next regular agency meeting.

The land in question is inside the 40-acre industrial park adjacent the
north side of the airport.

The first proposal, from Apple Tree Constructors Inc., is to lease 37 acres
with an option to purchase the land, where the company plans to build a
facility for manufacturing modular homes. The California City site would be
the first of many planned throughout the country.

In its proposal, the Moreno Valley-based company said it anticipates
overseas orders for 2,000 to 6,000 of the homes in the first year,
escalating after that. The company's estimated annual revenues are in excess
of $50 million in the second year.

The second proposal is from existing airport tenant D&T Aviation, which
seeks about five acres of the same industrial park land to expand the
business.

Owner Trudy Hopper told the agency board that the business had been trying
to buy land to expand for three years. They want to build three hangars and
expand their activities to include aircraft painting and service for jet
aircraft.

"We're getting calls weekly to paint aircraft. We're getting calls to repair
larger aircraft," Hopper said. "We have people who are willing to come in."

The company did not further pursue itbecause they were under the impression
that they could not purchase the land per Federal Aviation Administration
rules.

The airport has some $700,000 in federal grant money for land acquisition.
If the airport were to purchase the industrial park land that abuts the
airport property, it could then lease it to aviation-related businesses and
remain eligible for FAA grants for improvements to the site, said airport
manager Tom Weil. If the airport does not own the land against the fence,
those grants will no longer be available, he said.

Most of the parcels in the north side property have direct access to the
airport flightline.

The agency went ahead with a public hearing for the Apple Tree proposal,
which has been under consideration for some months, but was recently
revised.

Charles Sprout, chairman of the California City Airport Advisory Board,
asked that the airport be allowed to purchase the land to preserve it for
aviation business and airport expansion.

"It is our first real opportunity to do this," he said. "We do not want that
sold off piecemeal or as a whole unit."

Local Realtor Pat Gorden spoke against selling virtually the entire park to
a single business with no guarantee of jobs or economic success.

"I think it's the wrong time to tie this property up," she said.


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