THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 25, 1994 TAG: 9412230237
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PATRICIA HUANG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Requesting more research and analysis before making a decision, City Council turned down a proposal Tuesday to nearly eliminate personal property tax on airplanes at the city's municipal airport and voted instead to continue discussion of the issue next month.
The proposal to lower the city's tax rate on planes came nine months after Suffolk all but eliminated its tax, adjusting it to $1-per-plane last March. The goal of the two city-owned airports is to entice more business with lower taxes and improved facilities.
The City Council considered lowering the tax rate to one cent per $100 of assessed value from its current $4.08 tax rate as a way to stay competitive with Suffolk. The new tax rate would have meant a low $10 tax for a $100,000 plane. But council members decided instead to consider a lesser reduction.
By comparison, the much larger Norfolk International Airport currently ranks second-lowest in tax rates, charging $3.20 per $100 of assessed value.
Councilman John E. Allen suggested the Council vote on changing the tax rate to 25 cents per $100 of assessed value while at the same time raising the fuel fee by five cents to offset the lost revenue. But different amounts tossed out by Council members seemed too arbitrary, so the Council concluded that Allen meet again with the Airport Authority for more solid figures and analysis.
``I think it would be very imprudent of this council tonight to make a decision as to a tax rate without having seen a couple of options and an analysis of impact,'' said councilman John M. de Triquet. ``This is a very important decision.''
Serving some 70 private and corporate planes with 28 T-hangars and two storage hangars, Chesapeake Municipal Airport, like Suffolk, is setting its sights on expansion. Its plans include lengthening the runway by 1,300 feet, adding twice as much ramp space and building more hangars.
In an earlier vote last week, Council approved a budget package for the airport that, combined with state and federal funds, will ultimately produce nearly $5 million worth of improvements. Half-a-million dollars of this comes from the city and will be used to build a new fuel farm, improve lighting systems, radio systems and an automated weather observation station.
The airport's growth has met with recent opposition from residents who live in nearby West Landing Estates and the surrounding area.
Low-flying planes and increased traffic affect about 20 homes in the area, said Steve Haynes, a West Landing Estates resident who lives a mile and a half from the airport.
``When we bought the house two and a half years ago, we just thought we had a little puddle-jumper airport. We had no idea of the grandiose plans they had for it. Nobody ever disclosed this to us,'' Haynes said.
He and neighbors say they feel deceived. With a landing pattern directly over their homes that rattles windows and shakes shutters, they say they live in fear. They are constantly cringing from aircrafts that fly under regulation altitudes, they said, and find themselves impulsively running outside to catch an identification number on the plane so they can report it.
Two years ago, Haynes said, the Airport Authority promised they would move flight patterns a few degrees to the left or the right to avoid flying over as many homes. It never happened. This week, residents met again with new authority members who said they would look into fulfilling that request. by CNB