Abiding by the Federal Aviation Administration’s final determination to allow skydiving at South County Airport, staff from the County Roads & Airports Department have finalized an operations permit that they will bring before the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors at the Nov. 26 meeting.
The County and local businessman Jeff Bodin had been involved in a squabble over allowing skydiving in San Martin since 2009. After Bodin was denied by the County to land his skydivers on airport grounds, he filed a formal complaint with the FAA, which ruled in his favor. The County refused to comply, not wanting skydivers to land at its airport, and instead filed an appeal. In August, the FAA denied the County’s appeal, forcing its hand to work out an arrangement with Bodin.
County airports had been suffering the consequences of federal sanctions that prevented them from receiving valuable federal grant funds through its Airport Improvement Program (AIP). The county is entitled to $150,000 annually through the AIP. Those funds were being withheld due to non-compliance with federal guidelines.
First, Assistant Director Eric Peterson of County Airports presented a draft for the skydiving operations permit Wednesday to the San Martin Planning Advisory Committee, which can offer its own input before going to the Board of Supervisors.
Peterson was also expected to discuss the proposed name change from South County Airport to San Martin Airport, as well as the County’s desire to apply for a FAA grant to finance a long overdue runway rehabilitation project. The renovations would be done in San Martin as well as the two other county-run airports, Palo Alto Airport and Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose.
“It’s just kind of a relief to have the whole thing over with,” Peterson said.
Back in August, the FAA shot down an appeal by the County to forbid skydiving at San Martin’s general aviation airport. The County stressed safety concerns with allowing thrill-seekers the ability to land on airport grounds due to its proximity to U.S. 101. However, the FAA – which previously did studies on the safety issue and said the findings don’t support the County’s take – concluded none of the County’s points were “persuasive arguments” to overturn its initial decision to allow skydiving.
The FAA ruling was music to the ears of Garlic City Skydiving owner Jeff Bodin – who has been battling to get his business off the ground since 2009 when he filed his formal complaint.
In its final determination, signed Aug. 12 by Associate Administrator for Airports Christa Fornarotto, the FAA upheld its original Dec. 19, 2011 ruling stating there is no reason why Garlic City Skydiving can’t use San Martin’s general aviation airport as its home base and landing spot for thrill-seeking customers.
In the County’s original response to Bodin’s complaint, which led to the federal grant sanctions, the County stated “the proposal creates a hazard to air traffic and to persons and property on the surface that cannot be mitigated.”
However, the County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Sept. 9 to not appeal the FAA’s final determination. At that time, District 1 Supervisor Mike Wasserman confirmed that the County has been directed to prepare a plan to allow skydiving to occur under certain conditions at the general aviation airport.
“We have been working on a permit to authorize skydiving at South County Airport,” Peterson confirmed.
He noted that Director Carl Honaker, Bodin and County attorneys helped draft the skydiving permit.
“It’s been a long and arduous negotiation process,” Bodin admitted. “We’re still working through a lot of issues with the County right now. We’re not across the goal line. It will be a while before we are. It’s just a long process.”
Peterson said, with the ability to access the funds that were being withheld, the County is seeking approval from the Board of Supervisors to submit their grant application in January. Peterson previously said the grant money is “valuable” to airport upgrade projects such as the proposed pavement repair work for the runways and airplane taxi areas that have been put on hold.
“That’s a very big positive in getting this saga behind us,” Peterson said.
