Leesburg International Airport

Within the Master Plan is the recognition that, with a waiting list of approximately 100, new hangars will have to be built for GA aircraft. “So, we are designing two buildings with five units, each, for individual storage for private pilots,” says Dean. “We’re sizing those bigger than the existing ones that we have; we’re trying to keep up with the demand. The Master Plan also identifies that, every other year, we need to build another building. The ones that we’re designing, right now, by the end of the calendar year, or the beginning of the next, should be complete. We’re shooting for the location of the most readily buildable land, because after we deplete that, then we really get into some of the wetlands, which is still available, it’s just that any construction project costs would be doubled because of mitigation costs.” Another item addressed in the Master Plan is the potential construction of an access road to the southwest side of the property, because it is an area that Dean says is the next likely one to develop. “The FAA announced that, in addition to the regular entitlement and discretionary funding that they help airports with, they were adding additional money,” she reports. “They were asking airports to submit projects that would, typically, be considered for regular discretionary funding, but with a bit of a twist, because, maybe they weren’t the FAA’s highest priority for the airports. So, this would be something that they would consider funding at 100 percent construction costs, if the city was ready to go with a design, or have it designed in time for them to distribute funds. In the first round of three, they did not award any Florida airports. Hopefully, for Round Two, I have submitted this southwest access road with utility infrastructure for consideration, because any party that’s approached us, that needed a sizeable area of land and asked where they can build, when they LEESBURG INTERNAT IONAL A I RPORT