Cass County delays decision on airpark

By Don Bradley

Another hearing, another packed house, but still no final decision on a controversial airpark in rural Cass County.

Backers of Arrowhead Airpark, a proposed upscale subdivision with 93 home sites and a 3,000-foot runway, say the project would generate millions in tax revenue and be a great fit for the 160-acre site south of Belton.

Opponents, mostly residents in the area, say they like the peace and quiet of country living, don’t want a bunch of airplanes flying around and that developers are inflating the tax money and trying to blow past a lot of rules and regulations.

The two sides went at it, again, on July 23rd at a meeting of the Cass County Commission which will decide a special-use permit required for the runway and a zoning change from agriculture to single-family.

The hearing started at noon, went all afternoon and at the end the commission punted the vote 30 days.

At one point, a man in favor of the airpark stood at the mic and reminded the opponents that they could end up with something far worse than an airpark on the site. Like a pig farm.

“You want a pig farm?” he asked.

“Yes! Yes!” came the shouts.

Presiding Commissioner Bob Huston admonished the crowd for interrupting the speaker, loud enough to be heard above the laughter.

“He asked a question,” some responded.

Commissioner Mike Moreland said later another hearing would be scheduled after the board examined new information, including an engineering study provided by opponents.

Concerns were also raised about migratory birds, water drainage and threats to livestock, including a buffalo herd across the road from the end of the runway.

“We’ve got a mountain of new information and we have to go through everything to make sure all county regulations are being met,” Moreland said.

“It’s going to take a while.”

What do the packed hearings tell him?

“There’s a lot of fear in the room,” he said.

Moreland said he had not decided his vote.

Airparks are simply a residential community built around a runway. The first opened in 1946 in Fresno, Calif., and today there are more than 700 across the country.

The Arrowhead plan calls for 50 estate homes that could run upwards of a million dollars and 43 “hanger homes,” essentially an apartment over a hanger.

Anytime an owner wants they can taxi their plane on a private paved street to the runway and take off.

Arrowhead president Craig Wilcox describes the concept as a community for people who love aviation and airplanes.

He said Arrowhead, to limit plane noise, would not allow flights between midnight and 5 a.m. nor takeoffs after 10 p.m.

Commercial aviation or a flight school would also be prohibited.

But Wilcox didn’t appear to be changing any minds.

Jason Walker took issue with the much-used claim by the developer that an airplane is no louder than a lawnmower.

“You know nothing about our community because I can’t even hear my neighbor’s lawnmower,” Walker told Wilcox’s side.

Many residents in the area live on tracts 40 acres and more, Walker said.

He and his wife, Juli, live in a house where the front door is less than 400 feet from the end of the runway and their children play in the front yard.

“An amateur pilot and a crosswind and a plane could come through our front door,” Walker said.

The Walker family moved to their home in 2021. Two weeks later they received a letter about the airpark.

“Our hearts are broken,” Juli Walker told the hearing.

Wilcox said Arrowhead would provide two scholarships annually and host a yearly block party for the neighboring community.