Building plans near airport worry Cape officials

Trucking company owner Jerry Lipps wants to erect private hangars and possibly open an air-freight business on land bordering the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, but the plan depends on securing a "through the fence" agreement with the city that would allow him access to the airport runways and taxiways.

City officials say they're not ready to approve such an agreement since they have yet to see a written proposal from Lipps or his attorney.

Airport manager Bruce Loy has met three times with Lipps and Lipps' attorney over the past nine months.

City officials say they are worried that such a development might pose a security risk in today's terrorist-threat world, threaten federal grant funding for the airport, and lead to a loss of revenue for the city by drawing away tenants from city-owned hangars.

Loy said any agreement would have to protect the city.

Cape Girardeau lawyer Rick Kuntze, who represents Lipps, said he doesn't believe federal funding would be jeopardized. Kuntze said any agreement would make it clear that all runway operations would be controlled by the city, and all aviation traffic from Lipps' development would have to adhere to Federal Aviation Administration regulations.

Kuntze said any buildings constructed on the property would have to be located so as not to block the flight path or interfere with navigation radios. The development would be protected by a security fence, he said.

Kuntze showed the city council a map Monday night that details six hangars designed to house large, corporate jets and possibly provide space for an air freight business. But Kuntze said those plans haven't been finalized.

Lipps wants initially to build a hangar 200-feet square with a 30-foot clearance, said Kuntze, who expects to submit a written plan to the city within the next three months.

Lipps' Horizon Foundation, a nonprofit group that organizes religious crusades, plans to purchase one or more airplanes. The proposed airport development would provide the hangar space needed to store such planes, Kuntze said.

Future expansion of the airport could hinge on Lipps' project, parties involved in the negotiations say.

Lipps has purchased 70 acres and has an option on the rest of a 120-acre tract of farm land northwest of the airport, Kuntze said.

City's lost plans

The city's airport master plan envisioned the city buying the land within the next few years for future expansion. City officials had estimated it would have cost more than $1 million to buy the land, with the federal government paying nearly $964,000 of the cost and the city providing the remainder.

The project was even mentioned in a published legal notice earlier this week in connection with the city's plan to hire an airport consulting firm this spring to handle architectural and engineering work on airport improvement projects for the next five years. The notice listed land acquisition as one of the possible projects.

Now it appears future airport expansion will require dealing with Lipps.

"We have nowhere else to go," said Gerry Keene, who chairs the airport advisory board. "That is where there is room for expansion."

Loy said the city won't allow a private development to have access to airport runways and taxiways without approval of the Federal Aviation Administration.

The city doesn't want to jeopardize federal funding for future airport improvements, Loy said. "That can become a very sticky issue," he said.

Airport advisory board member and former airport manager Mark Seesing said the FAA has traditionally been opposed to "through the fence" operations.

"The FAA doesn't really like it, but that doesn't mean it can't be done," Keene said, adding that there are such arrangements at other airports across the country.

Seesing said he pushed to have the city buy the property as long ago as 1989.

Keene said the city would prefer to own the land and lease it to businesses.

But he said the city hasn't had money available to pay the local match needed to secure federal funding to buy the land.

"If Jerry is going to develop it then that is fine, if he can make it work," Keene said.

Kuntze said the proposed development, particularly an air freight business, would mean added jobs. How many isn't known.

Lipps has even talked about possibly running the fuel service at the airport for the city if an agreement can be worked out, Kuntze said.

"Sometimes you just need private enterprise to get things moving," Kuntze said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123