Officials debate Mears Field lease terms

Aug. 20, 2014

Aug. 20--CONCRETE -- Lease terms for plots at the Concrete Municipal Airport, or Mears Field, have become a contentious issue.

The prized airport draws a crowd to the town each summer with the Concrete Fly-In, which town officials agree was a big success this year.

But some who rent space at the facility are displeased with the town's rule that hangars must be built within five years of signing a lease, and say the building requirements are unclear.

The 5-year rule and the size of the lots were the focus of a workshop town officials held Tuesday that drew 26 community members and lease holders.

Mayor Jason Miller organized the workshop after a series of arguments broke out at the council's July 28 meeting.

During the July meeting, arguments ensued between councilman Jack Mears, who serves as airport manager; councilman Dave Pfeiffer, who leases space at the airport; and several audience members who also lease space.

Mears and at least two audience members left mid-meeting following the altercations.

Seven lease holders submitted letters regarding lease requirements, which the council reviewed and discussed during the workshop.

The letters raised questions about specific building requirements, and several asked if the 5-year rule could be tossed out.

Mears, who has served as airport manager for 10 years, also said he would like to see the rule eliminated.

The aviation industry was not exempt from economic hardships experienced during the recession, he said, and the town will lose revenue if it pulls the 21 leases that will be out of compliance at the end of the year.

"I don't care how many hangars are built, I care that the payments are made. That's where we get our revenue," Mears said.

Pfeiffer argued that a lease is a contract, and the terms should be met. As an airport lease holder, he built a hangar on his lot in June 2012 in order to comply with the contract and avoid losing the money he had invested in the property so far, he said.

"I signed the lease and I think I'm responsible to follow the lease," Pfeiffer said.

According to the Aviation Administration's master record for the airport -- which was last updated July 11 -- 45 aircraft are based at the 53-acre field.

Town Clerk Andrea Fichter said in an email that all 51 lots at the airfield are rented, and the town receives $16,500 in revenue from lease payments each year.

When a tenant signs on to rent a vacant lot, they are responsible for having water and sewer services extended to the property, according to the Skagit County Auditor's binding site plan, which was signed in 1988. The town's lease agreement also sets a 5-year period during which lease holders are expected to begin constructing a hangar.

Some who rent multiple lots are interested in or ready to start building, but cannot construct the hangar they envision because the town's building codes do not allow construction across lot lines at the airport, town planner Marianne Manville-Ailles said. That restricts hangars to a single 50-by-50 foot lot.

"The size of lots we have are not the size people want to build on right now, they want something larger," she said.

To meet the needs of multilot renters who want to build a larger hangar, Manville-Ailles recommends the town change its building codes for the airport. If the town did away with specific setback rules and instead went by fire codes, lease holders could build across multiple lots, she said.

Questions were also raised at the workshop regarding acceptable locations for septic systems, and whether utility work satisfied the requirement of starting construction with the five years.

The council did not make any decisions about lease terms or building codes Tuesday, but will continue the conversation at the council's next meeting Aug. 25.

Copyright 2014 - Skagit Valley Herald, Mount Vernon, Wash.