The International Cessna^® 170 Association

E Missourian. Newspaper recent article. Quoted city of st clair adm. Hanger rent to increase. To. 300,00 month.

2009 rent was. 135,00

Trying to close airport. Other. Cities that want out of aviation are watching.


City adm Rick Childers quoted saying Some pilots may leave.

There is no place to move.

Regards

Wow, it sure is quite an increase. That said, I pay 350+25 elec / month for HALF of a hangar out here in Ventura County!! If you want to buy at Santa Paula....get ready to shell out approx $250K for a 60 yr old metal structure!! Maybe everyone should put their planes on tie downs and share the rent on a few hanagrs for storing "airplane projects" tools, etc?

Supply and demand is one thing.
Trying to price people out of the airport to sell the property is just crummy business

bagarre wrote:Supply and demand is one thing.
Trying to price people out of the airport to sell the property is just crummy business

Agree! And that is happening at many airports - the city/county sees big tax $ from development, even though development isn't happening very much. They never seem to see any economic advantage to an airport.
Fortunately, we have two pilots on our county board, and they are very good at telling the advantages of our airport. I hope we can keep such people on the board.
I pay $205/month for a "60 year old metal structure", but, it is well maintained and I'm happy.

Government is SUPPOSED to be FOR the people. Instead what you get are greedy politicians that are in it for themselves and the $$$$$$$. Corruption and greed got so bad in Memphis Tennessee that they passed a law that allowed citizens to start a petition and have a vote to vote politicians back out of office. Great idea if you ask me. We vote you in and we can vote you right back out if you don't do what we want.

Petitons to vote people Out of office.....I like that!

I still have an individually owned T hangar for which I pay about $45.00 ground rent plus $5.00 electric per month, and about $335.00 property taxes per year.
Since I no longer have an airplane, I have a renter paying me $150.00 per month to park his airplane. I still have a lot of tools and other aircraft junk in the building. I estimate the value of the building at about $30,000 to $35,000. I would probably be better off financially if I were to divest myself of the tools and junk, sell the building, and invest the proceeds.

To be pefectly honest, that's probably why I do keep it. I ride the scooter up there and back, thirty six miles each way, about four or five times a week just to provide my friends with advice from my vast store of aged experience.

Update

NOne of the attorneys around court house in Franklin county missouri want to represent a pilot tenant in this matter.


I sent copy of city s proposed lease to a noted law firm in St Louis and await their reply in 2 3 days. Looking for immediate strategy.

Pilots have tried to be helpful to city. several pilots did repairs to rotating beacon. City refused our help and appears that police will stop and repair work by tenants. I am trying soothe one pilot who is out spoken . Don t want any to be TAZED.

A bit off the subject, but still related-----------Yet how many airports "don't" have waiting lists of 20 or more prospective aircraft owners who are wanting hangars to house their aircraft? BUILD EM AND THEY WILL COME!

My field doesn't even have hangars.
But other airports in the area quote $400 a month as a very reasonable rate

MoonlightVFR wrote:Update

NOne of the attorneys around court house in Franklin county missouri want to represent a pilot tenant in this matter.


I sent copy of city s proposed lease to a noted law firm in St Louis and await their reply in 2 3 days. Looking for immediate strategy.

Pilots have tried to be helpful to city. several pilots did repairs to rotating beacon. City refused our help and appears that police will stop and repair work by tenants. I am trying soothe one pilot who is out spoken . Don t want any to be TAZED.

AOPA has a program (ASN) in which voluteers are nominated/accepted as special envoys for each airport...a sort of "watchdog" to keep an eye on these sort of things. Contact AOPA and ask who your ASN volunteer is. If there is none, then offer yourself as that person, and ask for assistance. AOPA's legal department has attorneys who are familiar with such matters and specialists who can guide you to educate and change the attitude of your local gov't. They can assist you to determine if Federal funds have been utilized on the airport, which can bring FAA into the matter. They can also assit you to determine which particular local-gov't official is charged with the responsibility to protect and serve the airport. (You may find, as some have found, that the airport commissioner IS the actual problem....may even be a local developer who has gotten himself appointed to that position for deliberate (un-ethical) gain. Your airport will not be the first to find itself in that unique situation.
Beacons, taxiway/runway markers/signs, security fences, hangar-condition, etc etc are all safety/security matters that deserve appropriate support. Local airports serve communities in ways that are not always obvious to citizens/gov't officials, and AOPA (and your state aviation authority who, by the way, is also the entity to acquire federal aviation grant monies for local airports) can be helpful in a public awareness program to change those attitudes.

http://www.aopa.org/advocacy/

However, your original post is largely a complaint about higher hangar fees. Keep in mind that there may be good reasons for a local gov't to revisit existing fees. Some of the programs that actually improve airports cost a lot of money. IF hangars need upgrading, repair, security, etc etc., it is appropriate that tenants foot a portion of that expense. Don't expect to find much relief if your only problem consists of that single issue. Unless the fee hikes are exorbitant or otherwise onerous, or unless they violate existing airport master plans, fee-schedules, municipal laws, federal grants, etc etc., you may find little legal basis for objection, which may also explain local attorney's reluctance to represent. (It is possible hangar-fees are governed by law or ordinance. Increases may be regulated ...not arbitrary...and it would be wise to find out what regs exist which influence and govern. Also, law work is a professional/commercial venture which requires some "grease" to get the wheels turning. If you don't have a local Bonanza-owner who is an attorney then you might find AOPA's legal team an attractive alternative.)

BTW: It makes perfect sense for the police to halt local pilots from working on the beacon, etc.. It is airport property...not individual property. How would you lke it if some yokel decided to "improve" the city water delivery system serving your neighborhood, or decided to install a homemade electronic ignition repair to the local fire truck?

I feel you pain. and then some.
I was down at my hanger working on the 170 Friday night and the airport managers stopped by to let me know that the hanger rent was going up 2% this next year. I had already received the form letter in the mail concerning this increase so was not surprised. My hanger rent is $460/month. My hanger is one of the end hangers in the building so it is actually L shaped and not “T” shaped. This added square footage causes my hanger to rent for more than the lower square footage of the standard T hangers in our complex.
What was surprising and demoralizing is what they said next. Because my hanger is one of the L shaped hangers their book keeper had not noted the difference the last two years and had not increased my hanger rent over those two years the same as the other “T” hangers or some such nonsense. As a result they are increasing my hanger rent some $100 a 21% increase = $1200/year. Without increasing my labor rate that is a hit of 8% of my annual additional income profit from Jim’s Aviation Services. To recoup this hit I would have to increase my labor rate by $6.52/hour. Of course I will be able to write some of this off in my taxes. I will probably not increase my labor rate. I will just shed more tears in my beer.
The airport has had the roof redone twice in the last 3 years. It still leaks. They never did complete the clean-up in my hanger from several years back when the fire sprinkler system burst in just my hanger and flooded the floor with rusty water, I did not however damage any of my property.

Same situation in Texas, hangar rent has gone up 3 times in 9 years. There is no recourse except to leave.

One can always develop one's own airport.

I wonder if it would be reasonable to expect the local gov't to lease to us a large storeroom in a public building or developed business-park for 20 years....and what a reasonable price (never to be increased) for that room might be...

(arms-length viewpoint offering)

blueldr wrote:To be pefectly honest, that's probably why I do keep it. I ride the scooter up there and back, thirty six miles each way, about four or five times a week just to provide my friends with advice from my vast store of aged experience.

I Wanna Be Like Youu...hooo...hooo, ....bluE! .... provide my friends with advice from my vast store of aged experience...! ...and do it with your style when I'm your age!


(In the children's video "The Jungle Book", one of the characters is "Baloo", a ("Blue") bear, voiced by Phil Harris. He encounters an orangutan "King Louie" voiced by Louis Prima in a style reminiscient of Scat-man Carothers, and they entertain the young boy "Mowgli" with a song about the animals acquiring the secret of fire, "I Wanna Be Like You". It's a happy song which immediately popped into my mind when I read your post, bluElder. LOL)