May 26—LAKELAND — Amazon wants to double its footprint and daily cargo flights out of Lakeland Linder International Airport. Its plans, however, will likely have to first face public scrutiny.
Amazon will host a public forum beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday at the RP Funding Center to present its plans for a nearly 63-acre expansion in Lakeland. A public hearing will start at 7 p.m. where residents will have their opportunity have their voices heard.
Amazon opened its 285,000-square-foot cargo facility in the northwest corner of Lakeland Linder in July 2020. Now, the company is seeking to expand on 63 acres adjacent to its current facility under terms offered in its original May 2019 contract with the City of Lakeland.
Amazon proposes to build an additional 464,000-square-foot facility, nearly twice the size. Other proposed features would include a new fuel farm to store up to 24,000 gallon of gasoline and 72,000 gallons of jet fuel, additional employee parking with truck bays for ups to 350 vehicles.
Amazon did not respond to requests from The Ledger to provide further details about the proposed plans.
Gene Conrad, Lakeland's airport director, said that while the land was set aside for Amazon's future expansion, he was caught a bit off guard by the request after less than 10 months of operation.
"Who could have predicted the pandemic and how their business has exploded," Conrad said. "I didn't think it would happen this fast but here we are."
Ever since Amazon's arrival was announced in Lakeland, it hasn't always been greeted with open arms. Residents voiced concerns about the impact the facility would have on neighboring residents quality of life.
"A lot of people when this deal first came out thought this deal wasn't transparent, that it was done in the cloak of darkness," Conrad said. "There are public meetings going back to 2013... where [the city] started talking about about Amazon and e-commerce at the airport."
Conrad said master plans made between the city and the Federal Aviation Administration dating back to 2014 show that one of the best uses for Lakeland Linder would be to attract an e-commerce business. Federal grants were obtained in 2015 to begin speculatively developing the site, according to Conrad, prior to Amazon's first contact with the city in December 2019.
"Regardless of whether they were coming or not we were building this site," he said. "In order for us to continue growing jobs at the airport, that's the direction we were going."
Amazon's main building at Lakeland Linder opened for business in July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its first cargo flight touched down just after 3 p.m. on July 23, 2020, arriving from Sacramento, California.
The city receives about $80,000 a month for ground lease, according to Conrad, in addition to 85 cents per 1,000 pounds of cargo Amazon brings into the airport and 3.5 cents per gallon of fuel pumped. Through April, the deal's produced more than $1.5 million in revenue for the airport.
Conrad said Amazon's presence has lead other businesses to invest in Lakeland Linder. One new business expected to start operations in the next month Aero Center Lakeland, a fixed base operator that provides services general aviation services like maintenance and fueling.
"Our goal is to grow through economic development and create new jobs here at the airport," Conrad said.
Amazon currently employs approximately 1,000 people out of its Lakeland Linder site, according to Conrad. The airport director estimates that's a third of the 3,000 people working at the airport.
Amazon's growth hasn't gone without notice from city residents who have reached out to Lakeland officials and the airports with noise complaints about the rumble of low-flying jets.
Since last July, Amazon has gradually increased its flights from three per day. Currently, the company has 11 arrivals and 11 departments for a total of 22 flights per day out of Lakeland according to Conrad. These flights operate daily from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
If the expansion is approved, that number of flights is predict to double — increasing to 22 arrivals and 22 departments for a total of 44 flights daily, according to Conrad.
Under the FAA's federal guidelines, the airport must consider and respond to anywhere the noise reaches more than 65 db DNL, or the day-night average sound level average over a 24-hour period is more than 65 decibels. For comparison, most normal conversations are 50 to 50 decibels where a hairdryer or dishwasher typically is around 65 decibels.
The area that the FAA has ruled falls under this noise consideration basically falls within the boundaries of Lakeland's airport grounds, according to Conrad. However, that's where the noise complaints are coming from.
Conrad shared with The Ledger that he has a map marking each and every noise complaint the city has received with clusters of the neighborhoods of The Grasslands, Lakeland Highlands, a handful from Carillon Lakes and some homeowners off County Line Road. The airport director assured that each phone call, email and letter is received and forwarded to the FAA.
A recent February 2021 FAA study on the impact of airplane noise on neighborhoods surrounding 20 airports found, "a substantial increase in the percentage of people who are highly annoyed by aircraft noise over the entire range of aircraft noise levels considered, including at lower noise levels." Conrad said he's hopeful that this will be taken into consideration.
"Do I think [the FAA] needs to change their process and most likely over time? Yes," Conrad said.
The airport director has been working with Mayor Bill Mutz and Lakeland officials in attempt to make changes to Lakeland Linder's arrival and departure patterns. Conrad admitted that right now pilots flying in are coming in over the city including flying over Lake Hollingsworth and Lake Parker.
"We're looking to clean this mess up," he said.
Conrad said his main goal is to work with the FAA and Tampa Air Traffic Control to get jets coming into Lakeland Linder to fly southeast until they are over the city dump, turn west and follow the Polk Parkway when coming in. To execute it means changing air flight patterns and getting the pilots of Amazon's subcontracted freight carriers onboard. Conrad said he had a conference call with the chief pilots last week.
"All of those pilots hate being pushed all over the place over the city," he said. "They would rather have a fixed, defined route."
The pilots would depart from Lakeland Linder going east and climbing in altitude, preferably above 3,000 feet, according to Conrad, before turning out over the city on departure. This pattern, if approved by the FAA, would help reduce the number of flights taking off over The Grasslands.
Despite these noise abatement attempts, Conrad said he's not sure if it will bring residents relief in the long run.
"We're trying to fix it, but at the end of the day it's all a balancing act," he said. "Although I think this will be better, doesn't mean someone else won't be extremely upset and calling me."
Sara-Megan Walsh can be reached at [email protected] or 863-802-7545.
___
(c)2021 The Ledger (Lakeland, Fla.)
Visit The Ledger (Lakeland, Fla.) at www.theledger.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
