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The Panama City - Bay County International Airport and Industrial
District (Airport Authority) announced the completion of the Airport
Authority's $312 million financial package for the new airport in
western Bay County. With the financing complete, the airport now holds
all permits, approvals and funding to start construction, which would
have begun this week but for the temporary stay recently issued by the
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Court in New
York at the request of Friends of PFN.
In completing its financial package for relocation, the Airport
Authority has received payment of $56.5 million in escrow for the sale
of the current airport site to a subsidiary of Leucadia National
Corporation. In addition to the $56.5 million, the transaction also
calls for transfer fees over a 90 year period from the sale of future
properties developed on the current airport site. The current airport
is on approximately 700 acres adjacent to North Bay in Panama City.
With the financing package complete and all permits in hand, the
Airport Authority has approved, but not issued, a full and
unrestricted "Notice to Proceed" to general contractor Phoenix
Construction. However a federal court in New York City granted an
emergency stay halting construction to Friends of PFN, a group of
local general aviation pilots who oppose the relocation of the
airport. The Airport Authority and the Federal Aviation Administration
filed emergency motions earlier this week asking the United States
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Court in New York to vacate
the stay or hold a hearing on the merits of the case.
The stay sought by the recreational pilots groups unless lifted
will consume at least one month prior to the requested hearing.
According to the Airport Authority's counter-motion filed with the
court, it will cost a minimum of $1.2 million to grant the delay in
the hearing.
In its response to Friends of PFN's motion for a stay halting
construction, the Airport Authority told the court:
(Friends of PFN) lacks standing even to pursue this motion. FPFN
is not an environmental organization, and lacks any expertise or
legitimate interest in the issues presented by this appeal. FPFN
basically is a small group of general aviation pilots who do not want
the inconvenience of relocating their airplanes to an airport that is
further away. FPFN complains that "50 + additional (round trip)
driving miles will eliminate the recreational advantages of owning an
airplane."
Putting aside the inaccuracy of this allegation, such recreational
inconvenience does not establish the sort of injury protected by
either the National Environmental Protection Act or the Airway and
Airports Improvement Act, which declares that: "It is the policy of
the United States - that the safe operation of the airport and airway
system is the highest aviation priority."
In its response to Friends of PFN's motion for a stay, the United
States Department of Justice on behalf of the Federal Aviation
Administration argued to the court:
...respondents FAA and Marion C. Blakey (FAA's administrator)
demonstrate that Friends' emergency stay motion must be denied because
Friends have demonstrated no likelihood of success on the merits and
the allegation of irreparable harm absent a stay is groundless.
"In considering the relocation of our airport over the past ten
years, hundreds of public meetings have been held, and the Airport
Authority has received 18 approvals and permits and coordinated input
from 22 federal, state and local agencies," said Bill Cramer, vice
chairman of the Airport Authority. "We believe the tremendous regional
transportation, economic and environmental benefits resulting from the
relocation far outweigh the claims of our opponents. This delay is
like grounding the space shuttle at T minus 5 seconds," said Cramer.
"I want to reassure the public at large, businesses in our region,
businesses actively seeking to come to our region, local and state
environmental organizations, local construction crews, military
leaders at Tyndall AFB and Eglin AFB and others who share our optimism
for the future, that the Airport Authority is doing everything
possible to resolve the issues pending in New York so that we can
begin construction," said Cramer.
The airport is to be built in the 75,000-acre West Bay Area Sector
on 1,300 acres of a 4,000-acre site being donated to the Airport
Authority by The St. Joe Company.
Once airport construction begins, work will also begin on an
unprecedented environmental preservation effort designed to help
protect the entire West Bay watershed, an area considered one of
Florida's environmental jewels. Relocation of the airport triggers the
creation of the West Bay Preservation Area, a conservation area that
will permanently protect approximately 40,000 acres around West Bay,
including 33 miles of undeveloped shoreline and an additional 44 miles
of creeks and tributaries. Without the airport relocation, the West
Bay Preservation Area and the West Bay Sector Plan both evaporate.
About the Relocated Panama City - Bay County International Airport
The Panama City - Bay County International Airport and Industrial
District (Airport Authority) is nearing completion of a ten-year
process to relocate the Panama City - Bay County airport. The
relocated airport is expected to be the first new airport built since
September 11, 2001.
In late 1980s the Airport Authority began an effort to address
significant deficiencies at the existing airport, including
non-standard runway safety areas. When local environmentalists and the
Florida Department of Environmental Protection objected to extending
the existing runway system into Goose Bayou, a particularly
environmentally sensitive part of St. Andrews Bay, the Airport
Authority began considering relocating the airport.
After working with the FAA to complete a feasibility study in 2000
and a site selection study in 2001, the Airport Authority identified a
new site for the airport in northwestern Bay County (West Bay) on land
owned by The St. Joe Company.
Following the FAA's selection of the site, the Airport Authority
partnered with the State of Florida, Bay County and The St. Joe
Company in an innovative planning process authorized by Florida law
known as "optional sector permitting and planning." The process
included dozens of public meetings, data gathering, analysis and
visioning for the future. The plan was approved by Bay County and the
State of Florida in 2002 and detailed specific area plans were also
approved in 2003. Its policies will guide future development and
conservation of the West Bay area.
One of the most innovative elements of the plan, in addition to
the airport and economic development provisions, is the proposed West
Bay Preservation Area. The West Bay Preservation Area was designed by
local and state environmental leaders to preserve the health and
habitat of West Bay forever. This watershed scale plan will preserve
approximately 40,000 acres and, when fully implemented, include the
provision of habitat corridors, open space and estuary protection.
In 2004 the FAA began preparing a Draft Environmental Impact
Statement considering two-dozen alternatives for addressing the
deficiencies at the existing airport. In May 2006, the FAA issued its
Final Environmental Impact Statement, identifying relocation to the
West Bay Site as its Preferred Alternative. In September 2006, the FAA
issued its Record of Decision recommending and approving relocation of
the Panama City airport to the proposed site in West Bay.
Simplified, the objective of the West Bay Preservation Area is to
maintain West Bay in its present, pristine state forever. Its vision,
especially when compared to the development that has occurred on
Florida's other bay front lands, holds the potential to be one of the
most significant conservation measures in Florida history. The plan
has won statewide praise including the "2007 Promising Practices
Award" from the Council for Sustainable Florida this month.
In August 2007, after extensive review, the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers issued a Section 404 permit, the final permit necessary to
begin construction of the airport.
Under the Airport Authority's current schedule, the new airport is
expected to open in 2010.
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