Updated airport plan ready Two committees try to plot facility's course

HIGHFILL -- Two Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport committees Wednesday sent the final draft of the airport's master plan to the full board with a recommendation to approve it next week.

"It's a chance for the airport to take a look at all the issues facing it over the next 20 years," said Mark McFarland with Meade and Hunt of Tulsa, Okla., a consulting firm hired to prepare the plan. The document has taken 15 months to complete.

Mike Johnson, chairman of the Operations Committee, said he likes the plan but added airport officials need to look at acquiring four parcels of property adjacent to the airport. The property is needed for runway expansion and an access road. Johnson also urged looking at planning and zoning restrictions and easements around the airport to keep residential development from encroaching and to assure the facility remains viable.

"We need to protect our future," Johnson said. "Our future isn't 20 years out; it's 50 to 70 years out."

Johnson said he has seen too many instances of residential development springing up next to airports with the result being noise complaints by those who move in and ultimately the airports having to shut down or restrict operations.

Bentonville has an overlay district that places restrictions on development on the north side of the airport. Other areas around it don't have protective zoning with the exception of an ordinance regulating cell towers and other tall structures within five miles of the airport.

The committees Wednesday were briefed on the final part of the plan: the financial implementation analysis. Andrew Borden with Leigh Fisher, a consulting firm working on financial aspects, told directors the plan calls for some borrowing in the form of bonds for several large projects, including an access road and a 900-space parking deck.

The airport's debt service on bonds is $5 million a year, and it could afford as much as $9 million a year, Borden said.

Total costs would depend on the final design of the projects and how much revenue they produce. The access road will likely be a toll road.

A four-lane access road from the planned U.S. 412 bypass to the airport is expected to cost about $38 million, which the airport must pay. A two-lane road would cost about $30 million. Right-of-way acquisition is expected to begin in 2017 but could happen sooner.

Borden urged setting money aside for the projects and looking at options to reduce the cost of the parking garage. Parking is the airport's biggest revenue generator.

Other potential projects identified in the plan include expanded areas for car rental companies and airlines.

The airport board is being urged to reserve space on the east side of the property for a second runway, but it isn't expected to be part of the plan.

Details for two other projects, a second concourse and a second parking deck expected to be needed in 20 years, will be worked out later.

"We've come a long way with this since we started this process more than a year ago," said Phil Taldo, chairman of the Finance Committee. "We need to update it every couple of years to make sure it doesn't become a doorstop."

General News on 06/18/2014