New Smyrna Beach Airport Changes

Goals:      (Red #'s are footnotes to sources listed below.)

There were 159 aircraft based at the New Smyrna Beach Airport in 2002. 1

There is only one formal auto parking facility at the Airport "with approximately 64 parking spaces."  2

"In 2000, the City's population was 20,048 persons . . "  3

We merely want the City Commission to consider the needs of the 20,048 in addition to the needs of the 159 and the 64.  Specifically we wish to:

 1.    Convince the New Smyrna Beach City Commission to formally         terminate the plan to extend Runway Number 11-29.  This would include a letter from the City Commission notifying the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of this decision.  It would also include directing Airport Manager Rhonda Walker to remove the runway extension permanently from all future Airport Master Plan Updates.

 2.    Compliance with Current Touch and Go Restrictions is a standing joke.  Put pressure on the Airport Manager, the Airport Advisory Board, and the City Commission do everything possible to enforce the existing Voluntary Touch and Go Restrictions.  This means no Touch and Go activities before 10:00 a.m. or after 4:00 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.  This means no Touch and Goes on Sundays.  And it especially means no Touch and Goes at night when the tower is closed and no one can verify whether the students and instructors are operating safely.

 3.    Convince the New Smyrna Beach City Commission to charge reasonable landing fees, especially to the flight schools.  This would do many things.  In addition to weaning the airport from its reliance on our tax dollars, it would shift the monetary burden of runway maintenance from taxpayers to those using the runways.

Click here for the landing fee argument.

Click here to see one very simple way to collect landing fees.

Click her for another.

If the above cannot be accomplished, those residents living in the increased noise "footprint" (extending 3 miles out from Airport Property on all sides and including properties from Ponce Inlet, downtown New Smyrna Beach, and west almost to Interstate 95) should receive compensation in the form of reduced property taxes!

One resident suggested the following table with those closest to the airport paying zero real estate taxes:

Sources (all from the Airport Master Plan Update):

1  Pages 2-6 and 2-7.

2  Page 1-11.

3  Page 1-18.