BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The Federal Aviation Administration has approved a corrective action plan by the Keystone Heights Airport to resolve the federal agency’s objections to an automobile track at the facility.
Airport Manager Craig Coon told the airport authority board during its April 1 meeting that the plan would go into effect the following day.
One early key to the plan is the FAA’s approval of designating Runway 11-29 as A-1, changing its current designation from B-2. The new classification will require pilots to approach 11-29 at a slower speed and prohibit aircraft with multiple engines from using it.
Runway 11-29 runs along the northern portion of the facility. The 4,988-foot-long airstrip runs northwest to southeast, near the airport’s property line with Camp Blanding.
The airport’s other runway, 5-23, runs 5,046 feet southwest to northeast parallel to Airport Road and the facility’s offices, hangars, and the MHD Rockland facility. A third runway, parallel to State Road 100, is no longer active and is occupied by the Florida International Rally and Motorsports Park.
The change will reduce 11-29’s runway protection zone, shrinking it to the point where a track owned by the motorsports park will no longer be in the zone.
Track encroached on runway protection zone
In February 2024, the FAA informed the airport that the track encroached on 11-29’s runway protection zone. In addition, the federal agency asserted that the airport was undercharging the FIRM for its ground lease and that the FAA had never approved using the former runway for nonaeronautical purposes.
However, according to Airport Manager Craig Coon and authority Chair David Kirkland, the track’s encroachment on the runway protection zone was the FAA’s primary concern, and the federal agency would not consider remedies to the other issues until the RPZ encroachment was resolved.
Other points in corrective action plan
The airport’s submission to the FAA also outlines the steps it will take to request a land use change for the parcel the FIRM leases from the airport authority, obtain an appraisal that will determine the fair market value of the track’s lease, get approval from the federal agency for changes to the track’s layout, and then implement those changes.
Once the track is no longer in the runway protection zone for a B-2 runway, the facility proposes changing the 4,988-foot strip back to its original classification.
Mayor warns board members
Toward the end of the April 1 board meeting, Mayor Nina Rodenroth addressed the seven-member panel, reminding them that their primary duty was to represent the municipally owned airport and to prioritize the city and the airport’s interests above those of tenants.
“We have to all remember that we are airport-first,” she said. “We have several tenants here. I know the FIRM is one of them, but we also have other tenants.”
Earlier in the meeting, board chair David Kirkland and board member Bobby Ludwig argued about whether it was appropriate for individual board members to discuss the runway protection zone encroachment, fair market value of the lease, and land use classification with FIRM employees.
“As board members,” Ludwig told his colleagues, “we have a responsibility and a right to talk and communicate with any of our tenants and listen to their concerns.”
Kirkland said he disagreed because the airport’s disputes with the tenant had been elevated to negotiations between the two parties’ lawyers and that litigation was possible.
Near the end of the meeting, Rodenroth backed up the board chairman.
“As far as communications with (FIRM employees) about this subject that has anything to do with it,” she said, “unless you want to be on a (witness) stand in a courtroom and have to testify to what you said or didn’t say to whoever, you’re putting yourself at-risk. I’m just going to tell you that right now.”
