Marion County commissioners asked staff and consultants on Jan. 9 to study whether draft comprehensive-plan language that regulates land use adjacent to airports should apply to private-use airfields.

Consultant Rick Bush (Kimley-Horn & Associates) told the board the county routinely regulates land uses around public airports to protect airport operations and public safety, but it is less clear whether the county can apply the same land-use controls to private airports. "This policy, we wanna look in a little further because this says that we would do the same thing next to a private airport," Bush said, adding that staff were conducting stakeholder meetings with private airports in the county and would return with recommendations.

Existing policy: The board retained policy 7.2.5, which directs that private airports should be reviewed through special-use permits or special zoning (PUD) and sets a framework for the land-development-code updates that are currently underway for "fly-in" communities.

Legal and implementation questions: Consultants and staff said private airports must still comply with state and federal aviation laws and that federally or state-mandated requirements (for example, certification or obstruction standards) remain the responsibility of those agencies. The consultants cautioned that county-level regulation of private airfields may be limited and requires careful drafting and stakeholder input.

Next steps: Staff will complete stakeholder meetings, finalize recommended language and bring back proposed text and, where needed, corresponding Land Development Code provisions. No formal decision was made at the workshop; commissioners asked for a follow-up report once stakeholder outreach is complete.

The board also confirmed that public airports and related land-use protections remain a part of the transportation element and that any new language addressing private-airport adjacency will be returned for board review before adoption.