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Council moves to update airport code, expands airport board eligibility and assigns manufacturing zoning
Summary
Council approved a zoning designation for Graham Municipal Airport and advanced a comprehensive update to airport rules and regulations to align with federal and state requirements, including FAA references and board membership changes.
On Jan. 16 the council adopted an ordinance assigning an M‑1 manufacturing zoning designation to all property within the Graham Municipal Airport boundary and took the first reading of a separate, more extensive amendment to the city code’s airport chapter.
The airport code update — a multi‑page ordinance drafted by the airport board and volunteers — updates antiquated language, aligns city rules with current federal and state aviation requirements, and includes several notable changes the board recommended: a board composition provision that calls for seven members with a target of at least four FAA‑certified pilots (with council authority to waive that ratio), the ability to appoint non‑Graham residents who live elsewhere in Young County to the airport board, and a requirement that hangar lessees be current on lease payments to be eligible to serve.
City staff also updated technical language such as replacing the word "sold" with "dispensed" in the fuel flowage fee section, and added a reference to CFR Title 14 Part 107 for drone operations. Airport board member Daryl Morgan and others spent more than a year preparing the rewrite, council members said; the board asked the council to consider waiving the third reading and adopt the measure on the second reading at the Jan. 30 meeting.
Council adopted the zoning ordinance for the airport (third reading) during the Jan. 16 meeting. For the broader airport code amendment the council approved the first reading and set the item to return; councilmembers indicated willingness to waive the third reading and adopt on the second reading on Jan. 30 if no objections arise.
The airport board and staff said the rewrite aims to modernize operations language, clarify commercial operator standards and incorporate current grant agreement language for federal and state airport grants.
