Ormond Beach Officials, Some Residents, at Odds Over Airport Runway Extension Project

ORMOND BEACH — The manager of Ormond Beach Municipal Airport said a plan to lengthen a runway by 600 feet isn't intended to increase traffic, will lead to less noise for nearby residents, and will increase safety and efficiency for aircraft.

But that hasn't satisfied some residents who took to holding up signs on the Granada Bridge this week in opposition to the project.

One of the airport's neighbors, Michael Rogers, said his biggest concern is his belief that the city hasn't been transparent about the project or its potential impact on people who own nearby homes.

"My whole point is they really just did this in an underhanded way trying to keep it on the down-low," Rogers said.

But airport manager Steven Lichliter disputed that characterization. He said the city has worked to keep nearby residents informed about the proposed extension from the beginning. He also told The News-Journal that the goal is safety and efficiency, not increasing airport traffic.

"It's not intended or expected to increase traffic," he said.

Businesses as the airport, which includes two flight schools, employ 518 people with a combined payroll of $17.8 million, according to the city's website. In 2020, the airport logged more than 110,000 flights — about 60,000 fewer than New Smyrna Beach's airport and about half the number of flights from Daytona Beach International Airport.

City plans initially called for extending the airport's east-west runway by 1,000 feet to the west. Lichliter said that would have necessitated purchasing property for an easement, including from Rogers, who lives on Pineland Trail. The east-west runway is the airport's longest already at 4,005 feet.

But Lichliter and Mayor Bill Partington said the runway extension has been reduced to 600 feet.

"We were looking for a runway extension on the east-west runway 1,000 feet to the west," said Partington. "That would have required us to purchase I think three properties in the county. At least one of them had objections. We looked at it and decided we could do 600 feet and keep the entire project on airport property. So that's what we decided to do to satisfy those concerns that were out there."

Lichliter said the shorter extension will actually alleviate noise worries among residents in the large neighborhoods east of the airport.

"Everything is contained entirely within the existing boundaries of the airport including the runway protection zone," Lichliter said. "As far as noise abatement is concerned the extension actually should be an improvement in terms of noise abatement issues," said Lichliter. "Most of the activity of the airport takes off toward the east, toward the ocean."

Extending the runway on the west will allow takeoffs to the east to reach higher altitudes before aircraft reach populated areas and lessen noise, he said.

"There are a number of residential areas east of the airport, Ormond Lakes, Tomoka Estates and so on, and all the flight traffic periodically causes noise concerns for folks over there, particularly ones that are closer to the airport," Lichliter said. "By extending the runway 600 feet further to the west those aircraft will be taking off from a point 600 feet further away from those eastern communities.

"The farther away it (the plane) is the higher the altitude will help mitigate some of the noise that the residents in those nearby areas are experiencing," he said.

Some of the Ormond airport's neighbors believe the extension means more flights and more noise

But Rogers and other property owners near the airport remain skeptical. They are part of a group called CARE, which stands for Citizens Against Runway Extension.

"When they (city officials) told the FAA in 2017 that we were amenable to the project, the problem was we didn't know anything about the project," Rogers said. "In fact, we didn't find out about the project until they sent us a notice to the owner through certified mail at the end of January in 2019."

Lichliter, though, said the airport first communicated with residents in 2017.

Rogers said he eventually arranged a meeting with the airport manager.

"I had to take it upon myself to have a meeting with the airport manager and one of the engineers in charge of the project," he said. "They tried to tell me that this is all being done under the guise of safety. None of the airplanes that they currently have at the airport needed the longer runway and they still don't.

"The small training planes that predominantly operate out of the airport are only about 2,100 pounds. They were trying to get an extra 1,000-foot extension that has now been scaled back since we've neglected to give them our property."

Rogers said increasing the number of aircraft coming and going at the airport isn't the way to limit the noise, especially if it increases jet traffic at the airport.

Jets do occasionally land and take off from the airport, including a jet recently carrying Gov. Ron DeSantis, Lickliter said.

But he said the additional runway length isn't intended to increase jet traffic at the airport. He said the runway extension will improve both safety and efficiency. A longer runway is always safer than a shorter one, he said. And currently, both jets and larger propeller aircraft now must take off without full tanks of fuel due to the shortness of the east-west runway, decreasing their efficiency.

Still, some residents aren't happy about the extension project, and believe it will lead to more flights and more noise.

"Basically, we believe a larger airport is not needed and it would result in a degradation to the quality-of-life for the surrounding neighborhoods (let alone a decrease in property values)," wrote Julie Sipes, who took part in the protest on the Granada Bridge with her husband, Ken. "Ormond was not designed, nor does it have the infrastructure, to support such urban sprawl."

Timothy Grisby, who has lived near the airport for 27 years, also believes the city hasn't been transparent in the way they've handled the proposed expansion.

"This is an economic priority for the city, but in fact the airport has been losing money for years and it's actually a financial drain on the city," said Grigsby. "It'll be even more so now that we're no longer getting the $100,000 rent from Riverbend Golf Course that closed recently."

Riverbend Golf Course closed at the end of 2020. The city recently commissioned a study to look at potential uses for the airport property.

Next steps regarding the project include further evaluation, Lichliter said.

"Because we reduced the scope of the project we're performing what's called a supplemental environmental assessment," he said. "We did an environmental assessment on the project originally but since we've revised the scope the FAA ( Federal Aviation Administration) wants us to do a supplemental environmental assessment, which could take a couple months.

"We'll advertise it for 30 days for public review and comment. We're also going to have a public meeting to receive additional comment and to answer questions about the environmental assessment. Then the FAA will review it and (hopefully) issue something called a 'finding of no significant impact.' Once that's done we can go to the City Commission, and have them approve the construction contracts."

Lichliter said the project has already gone to bid. Halifax Paving won the bid with a price tag of $2.73 million, not including some engineering costs. But Lichliter said that was for a 1,000-foot extension. He anticipates the price of the project coming down by about $900,000 at 600 feet.

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