CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE — The Federal Aviation Administration has rejected Cape May County’s plan to put several hundred units of mixed-income housing at the county airport to create “a city within a city.”
According to a statement from Crystal Essiaw, public affairs specialist in the Office of Communications of the Federal Aviation Administration, “the FAA has a longstanding policy of not approving the use of airport property for residential development and notified the Cape May Airport owner and operator that it would not do so in this case.”
Cape May County owns the airport and the Delaware River and Bay Authority operates it.
In an interview last fall, Cape May County Board of Commissioners Director Leonard Desiderio, Commissioner Bobby Barr and Administrator Kevin R. Lare spoke about the plan to use a 33-acre parcel at the airport for a housing project that would be affordable for local families.
Desiderio did not respond to a request for comment.
Last June, county officials submitted the required five-year notice to the DRBA that it was not planning to renew the contract.
Desiderio said at the time that the county has had a good relationship with the DRBA but the decision on whether to renew will come down to what the commission believes is in the best interest of the taxpayers.
Even if the decision is to renew, it would come about only with the proviso the county has more control.
Barr said the one thing everyone in the county sees as important is housing, that there needs to be affordable, mixed-income housing where working people — such as teachers, firefighters, single mothers with two kids — can get started in a county where housing is becoming unaffordable.
“We want to try to keep people in Cape May County — we envision this as a community within a community in Lower Township,” Desiderio said. “I think all of Cape May County would like to see something where people can afford to bring up their children in the county.
The 33-acre site along the western-most part of the airport abuts a residential area.
Desiderio said the beauty of the site is that it is perfect for the type of housing proposed because key infrastructure already is at the airport — a fire department, the Lower Township Police Department and emergency medical services. A nearby 14-acre parcel the county owns that is not part of the airport is available for other non-housing developments.
“This is a perfect location and a perfect parcel to do this,” Desiderio said.
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK and DAVID NAHAN/Cape May Star and Wave
