Commissioners review multiple Johnson County airport projects and land-use actions at New Century and Executive airports

Johnson County commissioners on Feb. 6 reviewed several airport-related items including a preliminary development plan for a terminal and two hangars at New Century Air Center, construction and design authorizations for hangar and apron projects at Johnson County Executive Airport, and a resolution to vacate certain public road dedications within New Century Air Center.

Michelle Leininger of county planning presented a preliminary development plan (Application W24-447-PDP) from Justin Milburn of Milburn Civil Engineering on behalf of Dream Air New Century LLC and the Johnson County Airport Commission. The proposal covers roughly 8.23 acres in a PEC-3 (planned research and development and light industrial) zone east of 1 New Century Parkway and would add two hangars and a terminal building with associated parking. Leininger said no zoning changes are proposed, the plan complies with county zoning and subdivision regulations and the New Century Air Center PDP, and the West Zoning Board unanimously recommended approval at its Jan. 15 meeting with no public comment.

Bridal (Bridal) Johnson, executive director of the Johnson County Airport Commission, described the T-hangar replacement program at the Executive Airport and said the county has selected a contractor for two T-hangar sets and expects a notice to proceed in spring. The board considered authorizations under the county’s term-and-supply on-call airport engineering contract with Burns & McDonnell for construction-phase services (authorization #5) not to exceed $246,000 for reconstruction of the Mike and November T-hangar buildings, and for design and bidding phase services for East 1 apron ($173,600) and East 4 apron ($175,600) under authorizations #6 and #7 respectively. Johnson said the apron projects are in the county CIP and funded at 95% by KDOT grants.

Johnson also explained that two roads inside New Century Air Center are currently identified as public rights-of-way but function as private roads within a fenced DoD complex; the airport commission recommended vacating those public dedications to clarify maintenance responsibilities. He said Highland Street is being considered for return to airport commission control to support future hangar development and to realize economies of scale with existing fence and infrastructure lines.

Commissioners asked about building materials and facades for the New Century structures, consistency with the Airport Administration Building architecture, contract value assessments for Burns & McDonnell, and whether other roads are being considered for vacation. Johnson responded that the preliminary plan will be followed by a final submittal with more material detail, that Burns & McDonnell was used on prior projects (Kilo Lima set) and staff can provide additional contract-value comparisons before next week, and that no other road vacations are pending at this time.

None of the airport items were voted on during the Feb. 6 session; commissioners placed several items on the consent agenda for the following week's business session or asked staff to return with additional cost-comparison information before formal action.