Essex Skypark Closure (Petition)

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bigblockz8

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Nov 8, 2011
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Gore
Please sign if you have the time!

http://www.change.org/petitions/ess...skypark-from-being-closed-by-baltimore-county

I have never flown out of Essex Skypark but I have been there. It's a nice field and is basically your only non-towered public airfield in Baltimore. If they close this airport the remaining option will essentially be Martin State, an airport with a runway comparable to 10/28 at BWI. If you aren't from the area,or don't know of Martin State, it also contains an ANG base. Not a bad airport for GA but not the best for (primary) flight training or a trip around the pattern. ($100 Hamburgers are more like $4, there's a restaurant nearby.)

Essex Skypark is perfect,low cost, suitable, and for you lucky ASES or AMES pilot, IT HAS A WATER RUNWAY TOO!

It hosts a RC club and an annual fly-in that is well known in the state.

Here's a pic:
rway2.jpg


Please sign!
 
Didn't the owner sell it to the county ?
 
weilke said:
Didn't the owner sell it to the county ?
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Well the entire parcel (which is much larger than the effort) was sold to the county to be put in a rural land trust. It's up in the air as to why the airpark isn't a compatible use with that.
 
flyingron said:
Well the entire parcel (which is much larger than the effort) was sold to the county to be put in a rural land trust. It's up in the air as to why the airpark isn't a compatible use with that.
Click to expand...

Looks like whoever the seller was didn't care enough about the future of the airstrip to put the necessary covenants in place.
 
weilke said:
Looks like whoever the seller was didn't care enough about the future of the airstrip to put the necessary covenants in place.
Click to expand...

The owner might have wanted a new toy badly enough to give up such a nice airport. Probably bought land out in western MD or PA or somewhere where he could have his own strip.

The thing now is how the users/potential users can save it.
 
bigblockz8 said:
The owner might have wanted a new toy badly enough to give up such a nice airport. Probably bought land out in western MD or PA or somewhere where he could have his own strip.
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I really dont know anything about essex. For some reason, Maryland has a couple of privately owned public use airports, some of them named after whoever owned them. What happens usually is that the owner becomes too old to run the airport and as there is little margin in running an airport they are threatened once succession becomes an issue.
The gentleman who owned our local field did the right thing. Put all the land around the airport into a trust together with the FBO owned by his son in law, got the feds to cough up a couple of millions to put in a new runway. That way the future of the airport is assured for at least the next 25 years. With essex being right next to Martin state that was not an option.
 
N801BH said:
http://www.airnav.com/airport/W48...

Or the owner could have approached all the based customers and offered it as a group purchase.. That way those people could control their destiny.:idea::idea:

Ben.
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According to Freemans site, the Shapiro family sold the airport (and the surrounding 588 acres) to the county for 2.1mil, with 30 based aircraft that would have been 70k per plane. Dont think that would have worked out.

The way the goverment gets this kind of land on the cheap is that they pass a law that restricts the owner from doing with it what they wish. Once they have boxed you in, they make you an offer to 'put it into conservation' along with some sort of dealio that gives you 'transferable development rights' for other properties you may own.

What is happening now is getting really bizarre. How many da## trees do we need ? Certainly no shortage of trees in maryland. If there is a concern with runoff from the runway and the grassy area (which is probably not even fertilized), this could be addressed with relatively simple sitework. I wonder which county commissioners son is going to make a couple of good $$ 'reforesting' the skypark property.

'Free State' my foot.
 
Point of factoid.
"Free State" came about when MD was one of the only states not to charge tax on alcohol.Nothing to with liberty.
This ends your public service message for the day.
Carry on.
 
Chip Sylverne said:
Point of factoid.
"Free State" came about when MD was one of the only states not to charge tax on alcohol.Nothing to with liberty.
This ends your public service message for the day.
Carry on.
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They sure charge tax on that now, and on the air you breathe, among other things.

Hey but they don't tax aircraft.
 
weilke said:
According to Freemans site, the Shapiro family sold the airport (and the surrounding 588 acres) to the county for 2.1mil, with 30 based aircraft that would have been 70k per plane. Dont think that would have worked out.

The way the goverment gets this kind of land on the cheap is that they pass a law that restricts the owner from doing with it what they wish. Once they have boxed you in, they make you an offer to 'put it into conservation' along with some sort of dealio that gives you 'transferable development rights' for other properties you may own.

What is happening now is getting really bizarre. How many da## trees do we need ? Certainly no shortage of trees in maryland. If there is a concern with runoff from the runway and the grassy area (which is probably not even fertilized), this could be addressed with relatively simple sitework. I wonder which county commissioners son is going to make a couple of good $$ 'reforesting' the skypark property.

'Free State' my foot.
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I am not sure the 70k is too far out of line for ownership of real estate. Alot of people pay that much or more to construct a hangar at their own cost at a public airport and then need a ground lease to keep it there, That is usually a 30 year lease and when that is up you forfeit the hangar. IMHO.

Ben.
 
N801BH said:
I am not sure the 70k is too far out of line for ownership of real estate. Alot of people pay that much or more to construct a hangar at their own cost at a public airport and then need a ground lease to keep it there, That is usually a 30 year lease and when that is up you forfeit the hangar. IMHO.

Ben.
Click to expand...

My understanding of the crowd at Essex is that they are the kind that changes their own oil and hauls in their own mogas. Yes, there are plenty of aircraft owners who could just put 70k on the table, I doubt too many fly out of a 2000ft strip with hand-hewn wood hangars.
 
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