Sheriff Grounds Mill Valley Seaplane Over Coronavirus
A Mill Valley seaplane business that uses Richardson Bay as its landing strip has been grounded due to COVID-19.
Aaron Singer, the owner of Seaplane Adventures, said a Marin County sheriff’s deputy informed him on Friday that he would be fined $1,000-per-flight if he continued flying.
“We were about to go out on a proposal flight,” Singer said, explaining that the client planned on proposing marriage while in the air. “We get that quite a bit.”
Sgt. Brenton Schneider, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said, “There have been multiple complaints from people in the community about the seaplane still operating when sightseeing tours are not allowed under the ‘shelter-in-place’ order.”
Schneider said the deputy was dispatched after Singer ignored an email warning him that his business does not fall under allowed business operations during the stay-at-home order and that he needed to cease operations related to commercial flights.
“We’re not being treated fairly,” Singer said. “We’re being singled out for what appears to be political reasons. The only complaint there is a record of is from Bill Schneider who is one of the original complainants who brought us up in front of the Planning Commission two years ago.”
In 2017, Marin County’s planning commission held a four-hour hearing to consider limiting Seaplane Adventures’ hours of operation and number of flights after Strawberry homeowners and other residents complained about noise from the planes.
During the hearing, Schneider, a spokesman for Strawberry homeowners, said that when Seaplane Adventures obtained its use permit in 1953 there were no homes in the area where the planes land and take off, while now “it is a densely populated residential neighborhood with several thousand residents.”
The Planning Commission, however, backed away from making any changes after Singer’s lawyer, John Sharp, asserted that the county lacked jurisdiction over the airline.
“We argued successfully that not only had Singer not violated any conditions of his use permit,” Sharp said, “but that the county’s jurisdiction is limited. Much of Seaplane Adventures’ business is regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration.”
For this same reason, Sharp asserts that Seaplane Adventures isn’t required to comply with the county’s shelter order.
Nevertheless, after being threatened with a hefty per flight fine, Singer shut down his business for a second time. He ceased operations in mid-March when the original stay-home order was issued and didn’t reopen until June 5.
“We reopened the same weekend that the county allowed indoor retail and boat charters,” Singer said.
He argues that the county is not enforcing the shelter order consistently since other charter operations at Marin County Airport have not been threatened with similar fines.
Marin County Counsel Brian Washington wrote in an email, “The seaplane operation is not being treated unfairly or singled out. The county’s order allows essential travel and does not allow for pleasure tours. Aviation companies are allowed to operate for essential purposes.”
When the business reopened in June, it took a number of precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. All employees and customers were required to wear face masks. Aircraft interior surfaces were wiped down with disinfectants after every flight.
Microphones were removed from the headsets that passengers wear. Passengers’ temperatures were taken before takeoff. And center seats in planes were removed reducing the seating capacity from eight people to six, including the pilot.
Singer said July and August are normally the family business’ busiest months, with seven or eight flights a day on some weekends. He estimates he lost $15,000 last weekend and is losing about $35,000 a week while he remains closed.
“We’re just like everybody else,” Singer said. “We’re trying to survive.”
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