Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Leases topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board seeks county-attorney review as hangar lease rules, map numbering and bankability surface
Summary
The board asked the county attorney to standardize lease wording and legal descriptions after confusion over multiple hangar spot numbers; local investors urged lease language that is bankable for large hangar financing and the board discussed FAA/state term limits (20/40 years) relevant to lenders.
At its Sept. 22 meeting the Park County Airport Board paused final lease approvals pending a county attorney review after members discovered conflicting map references and long-running inconsistencies in several hangar ground leases.
Staff and board members flagged a single physical hangar spot that appears on different plats as numbers 5, 9 and 12 on various map versions. The board directed staff to reference the active terminal-area/ground-lease plat (the 2021 map was cited during discussion) and asked counsel to finalize the legal description so leases unambiguously identify the leased parcel.
Board members reiterated that current county practice treats a lease as an agreement with the individual lessee, not the aircraft. In that framework, a lessee retains his lease until he relinquishes it; the next person on a waiting list is eligible only after the lease is surrendered or a vacancy otherwise occurs.
During public comment, a local investor urged the board to adopt lease language that would not preclude bank financing for large hangar projects. The commenter said banks often need certainty about lease terms and renewal language to underwrite loans for multi-hundred-thousand-dollar building investments; he circulated a draft clause to the board and said it had been emailed to members for counsel's consideration.
The board heard from Lance (consultant) on federal and state constraints affecting lease length. Lance summarized common practice: the FAA expects airports to plan with a 20-year view and will not obligate beyond 50 years, while Montana practice commonly limits leases around 40 years. Board members discussed a "20 plus 20" approach and noted that while buyouts have been used where airports expand runways, in practice long-standing lessees in good standing are rarely stripped of hangar leases absent major project needs.
The board moved to approve a Stringer ground lease conditionally, with a motion that the county attorney define the legal description prior to finalizing the lease. The motion passed. Members asked staff to bring corrected leases and map references to the attorney for wordsmithing and to post the corrected agenda item for the commission as appropriate.
Board members asked staff to continue coordinating with Montana Aeronautics and the county attorney on lease language, CPI/adjustment clauses and any bank-approval or finance-related provisions that might be required to attract capital investment in hangars.
