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Today is News and Events: Recent News: HCPB Report on Solberg Airport
MINUTES - SPECIAL MEETING Findings and Recommendations: 1. The on-going Environmental Assessment (EA) process should be completed before any consideration is given to condemnation of Solberg-Hunterdon Airport. A Study Advisory Committee comprised of representatives from Readington and Branchburg Townships, the Hunterdon and Somerset County Freeholders, the Hunterdon and Somerset County Chambers of Commerce, Solberg-Hunterdon Airport and NJDOT is monitoring the work of the consultant on the EA. The results of the EA may indicate that a more comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement needs to be undertaken. 2. The Hunterdon County Freeholders have gone on record supporting the operational and safety improvements currently being evaluated in the Environmental Assessment study. Privately owned airports are eligible for 90% federal funding for improvements of this nature with the remaining 10% shared equally by NJDOT and the airport owner. In order to receive these funds, the airport owner would be required to put a deed restriction on the property ensuring its continued use as a general aviation airport for a period of 10 years. Conversely, the owner of a publicly owned airport would be responsible for the entire 10% of these operational and safety improvements. If the Township were to acquire the airport, the Township's share of the necessary improvement costs would be an additional expense on top of the cost of acquisition. 3. Readington Township has been a leader in Hunterdon County with its aggressive efforts to preserve farmland and open space. With the cost of the acquisition of Solberg-Hunterdon Airport estimated to be in the range of $9 to $20 million, the question arises as to whether the Township tax revenues would be better directed towards farmland and open space preservation initiatives on land which is threatened by development. The Solberg-Hunterdon Airport owners have stated their intention to maintain the airport as open space at no cost to the taxpayer, and indeed they would be required to do so for a minimum of 10 years if public funds were utilized for the operational and safety improvements currently being evaluated. 4. A recent amendment to the Circulation Element of the Readington Township Master Plan (July, 2001) recommends the municipal acquisition of Solberg-Hunterdon Airport to ensure its preservation as a public aviation facility. The Master Plan references the New Jersey General Aviation Study Commission's (NJGASC) report, which identified threats to the continued operation of private, general use airports in New Jersey as justification for this recommendation. Among the threats noted were a lack of sufficient revenue to ensure maintenance of air facilities and increasing land values associated with residential development that put pressure on airport owners to convert their operations from marginal public airports to more profitable residential developments. In discussing the perspective of host municipalities to general aviation airports, the NJGASC report noted "perhaps the worst relationship this Commission found was between Solberg Airport, a privately owned public use airport, and Readington Township, its host municipality". The Township could achieve its stated goal of preserving Solberg-Hunterdon Airport as a public aviation facility, without utilizing municipal revenues, by waiting for the Environmental Assessment currently underway of the operational and safety improvements contained in the Airport Master Plan to be concluded. 5. Attached is a map of the Solberg-Hunterdon Airport properties with their assessed valuation and 2001 tax assessment. While the tax revenues derived from the airport are relatively modest, mostly attributable to the fact that several hundred acres receive preferential farmland assessment, the loss of this tax base is just one component of the overall financial equation, which must be evaluated. There are widely varying estimates of the cost of acquiring the airport, ranging from $9 million to in excess of $20 million. In addition, the cost of operating and maintaining the airport needs to be considered. As previously noted, NJDOT will not cost share with the owner of a publicly owned airport for operational and safety improvements. 6. The exercise of the power of eminent domain must only be invoked to protect a public purpose. The Township's stated purpose in considering the condemnation of Solberg-Hunterdon Airport is to preserve the airport and prevent it from being developed. There is no basis for assuming that after 65 years of successful business under private ownership that the owners intend to convert this land to a use other than that of an airport. If this were to occur at some point in the future, it would be a legitimate use of eminent domain at that time to achieve the Township's stated goal of preserving the Solberg-Hunterdon Airport property as an airport.
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