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CommunityCounty considers steps to allow airport operations
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
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The Charles County Planning Commission is considering a proposed zoning text amendment that would allow some airport equipment, facilities and utilities on properties zoned for business park use near Maryland Airport in Indian Head.
The airport on Livingston Road is located in the general industrial zone, the only zone where an airport is permitted, according to a county planning staff report. The property was zoned for general industrial use during the county’s 1992 comprehensive rezoning, but it did not take into account a planned expansion of the airport that requires a realignment of the existing runway because of environmental features that were not taken into account or known of during that time.
According to engineering plans based on Federal Aviation Administration requirements, a small area of the runway, radio beacon and airplane pathways to the runway are located on nearby property zoned for business park development, according to county planners.
The zoning text amendment would allow the equipment, facilities and utilities that are necessary to support a general aviation airport in the business park zone, according to planners.
‘‘This is just assures us that if we need to expand outside of the light industrial zone we can do it,” said Gil Bauserman, who owns the airport with his stepfather Jack Crawford. ‘‘This was just a fluke, a glitch, when the runway was expanded. It runs about 100 feet into the business park zone.”
The property where the airport is located comprises 400 acres, Bauserman said, adding that his father, Charles Bauserman, built the facility in 1945 using German prisoners of war who were being held on property that is now occupied by Lions Camp Merrick along the Potomac River in Nanjemoy.
The planning commission held a public hearing Monday evening and is holding the record open on the proposal until July 31. Send comments to Reed Faasen, acting planning director, at faasenr@charlescounty.org.
The planning commission will schedule a work session, and then forward a recommendation to the Charles County commissioners. The commissioners will hold a public hearing and work session and make the final decision regarding the proposed zoning text amendment.
