Longer runway, large-plane maintenance facility included in Hernando airport master plan draft
BROOKSVILLE — The future of Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport and Technology Center will include larger and more abundant aircraft, a U.S. Customs facility, a large-airplane maintenance and overhaul facility, more hangar space and a better designed main entrance off Spring Hill Drive.
Those are among the highlights in a 126-page draft of the updated airport master plan, which the Hernando County Commission approved earlier this month. The document, which has been a year and a half in the making, now will be examined by the Florida Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration.
“The primary planning objective of this master plan update was to create a 20-year development program that would maintain a safe, efficient, economical and environmentally acceptable airport facility for Hernando County,” according to the introduction of the draft plan.
“By achieving this objective, the document should provide guidance to satisfy aviation demand in a financially feasible and responsible manner, while at the same time addressing the aviation, environmental and socioeconomic issues of the community.”
Lengthening the runway from 7,000 feet to 8,000 feet and the construction of a large-airplane maintenance building are two of the main goals, both of which would help bring larger aircraft to Hernando. County officials have talked about the 1,000-foot runway addition as a tool for economic development.
The plan also details expanded and improved taxiways to service the longer runway.
The large-scale maintenance facility has been a goal at the airport since 2012. Before the County Commission abolished the Aviation Authority last year, that group talked about spending $3 million to build a 32,000-square-foot facility near the main runway, even before a tenant was secured.
Such a facility would allow work to be done on large, narrow-body commercial aircraft such as Boeing 737s.
Since that time, County Administrator Len Sossamon has talked with several potential tenants. Sossamon and the County Commission asked local legislators to allocate the $3 million that Hernando turned back to the state last year when an acceptable site could not be found for the Nature Coast Education and Tourism Center to the large-aircraft maintenance facility instead.
That allocation for a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility was still in place this week in the proposed state budget as the special legislative session drew to an end.
The draft master plan also includes a forecast for the airport’s growth through 2033. It predicts that airport operations will grow from just over 50,000 per year to nearly 76,000. Those operations include take-offs, landings and other movement of aircraft. That is still short of the 90,000 operations predicted to justify building the airport’s air traffic control tower, which opened in 2012.
The draft master plan also predicts an increase in the number of aircraft based at the airport from 176 in 2013 to 272 in 2033.
To handle the increased numbers, the proposed master plan relocates T-hangars and dome hangars, and adds more T-hangars and space both for conventional and corporate hangars.
The U.S. Border Control and Customs office, which several airport tenants support, is also contained in the draft master plan. A feasibility study is recommended, and construction is among the projects proposed for the 2020-24 time frame.
The draft suggests a redesign of the Spring Hill Drive entrance to better define the main entrance. There are also plans to realign Aerial Way and extend Technology Drive to open up the west side of the airport and technology center.
In addition, the draft includes a business plan and a snapshot of the value of having the airport in Hernando. It is considered an economic driver in the community and has been named General Aviation Airport of the Year three times by the Florida Department of Transportation.
Business at the airport generates 2,147 direct jobs and 2,745 indirect jobs.
Without the airport, the report asserts, Hernando County would lose $62 million in payroll and $554 million in output from goods and services to the global market.
Contact Barbara Behrendt at [email protected] or (352) 848-1434
Source : tampabay.com
