County and Airport reach agreement over deeded airport acreage

An agreement was reached per an FAA directive for a joint corrective plan, between the Paulding County Airport Authority (PCAA) and the Board of Commissioners for the return of most of the 163 acres deeded to the PCAA by former Commissioner David Austin on his final day in office.  
Austin had defended his action by saying he wanted to protect the county from possible airport authority lawsuits for not transferring the land as required in a 2014 intergovernmental agreement which established the airport authority as a separate entity from the county.
The PCAA will transfer 123 acres of the 163 acres back to the county, according to a letter sent to Atlanta Airports District Office Manager Larry Clark.
The proposed plan was voted on and approved by both Paulding’s Board of Commissioners and PCAA’s board.
The letter detailing the plan, dated August 17, was signed by Paulding Commission Chairman David Carmichael and PCAA Chairman Boyd Austin. The county and authority are jointly co-sponsors of FAA grants, which fund much of the airport’s operations. According to the letter, the PCAA will transfer to the county approximately 40 acres of property in the vicinity of the General Aviation Terminal Area Expansion project, the precise location of which to be determined by a subsequent survey. Under the proposed joint plan the PCAA will retain about 40 acres of the 163 along designated parameters.
The 40-acre tract the airport authority is keeping is part of the land it must own and reserve for Silver Comet Terminal Partners, which is headed by a group that owns the New York-based equity firm Propeller Airports. The authority has a contract with Silver Comet to give the company the option to lease or purchase 60 acres on the west side of the airport.
“The agreement with Silver Comet Partners clarified the need for certain acreage, [and] for them to help to develop the airport positively and allow for general aviation out there, so we wanted to retain that,” Carmichael said. “And the other part would be deeded back to the county...and with that clarification we moved ahead and fulfilled the Joint Corrective Plan and the agreement with Silver Comet Partners.”
The two entities were compelled via FAA directive earlier this year to establish a joint action plan. In a July letter to both entities the FAA’s Director of Airports Division, Southern Region, Stephen E. Hicks, clarified that “...going forward, the FAA will respond only to joint communications submitted by, or on behalf of, both co-sponsors...with no exceptions until further notice.”
Hicks confirmed during a July 10 meeting that included Chairman Carmichael, Airport Director Terry Tibbitts and Commissioner Todd Pownall that the 163 acres “just needed to be titled to one of the two cosponsors or to both co-sponsors.”
Carmichael said he also feels the meeting was something of a milestone in the relationship between the two entities. “We’ve turned the corner for a better mutual effort between the BOC and the PCAA,” Carmichael said.