Bay County Airport & Industrial District Completes $312 Million Package for Airport Construction

The Panama City – Bay County International Airport and Industrial District (Airport Authority) announced that documents were finalized today that complete 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.

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

Published on Wednesday, December 12, 2007