The Chehalis City Council held a public hearing during its Monday meeting to discuss surplusing a section of land on the northeast corner of the Chehalis-Centralia Airport with the intent of transferring it to the city’s airport fund.
The area is commonly known as the Barnes property.
According to Chehalis City Manager Jill Anderson, the city originally purchased the Barnes property in 2001 with the intent to build a new wastewater treatment facility on it.
“As we now know, that site was ultimately considered to not be the best site for the wastewater treatment facility, which has now been built off Louisiana (Avenue),” Anderson said.
Since it’s still held as a part of the city’s water and wastewater funds, it must be surplused first and the airport fund will reimburse the water and wastewater funds to the tune of $316,957. Anderson explained this amount is the Barnes property’s carrying book value.
Chehalis-Centralia Airport Director Brandon Rakes said while some ideas have been proposed as to what to use the Barnes property for, no exact development plans are in place.
“But, for future growth and all of that, I think it really is appropriate for it to be part of the airport,” Rakes said. “Hopefully, we can put it to good use. It gives us room for future development, whether it be aeronautical or non-aeronautical.”
Though the property is behind the airport’s flood levy, the land is still prone to some flood risk as a small pond — known as Airport Lake — to the north of the property expands southward during heavy rains, and a creek runs through the property.
Rakes added he is currently working with consultants from the Aviation Planning Group who are updating the Chehalis-Centralia Airport’s master plan, and the new addition of the land will be welcomed by them.
Required by the Federal Aviation Administration to get federal grant funding, airport master plans are comprehensive studies describing the short-, medium- and long-term development goals for future aviation demand at an airport.
The master plan update process started back in September, as previously reported by The Chronicle, with one open house already held and another tentatively scheduled in early 2024 to collect more public input on what changes should be made at the airport as the new master plan is drafted.
Once the final draft receives Federal Aviation Administration approval, it will be implemented during the summer of 2024.
Public comments and suggestions will be accepted throughout the entire airport master plan update process. To submit a comment and sign up for master plan update notifications, visit https://www.chehaliscentraliaairport.com/public-engagement-1.
For more information on the master plan and to view the 2001 Chehalis-Centralia Airport master plan, visit https://www.chehaliscentraliaairport.com/documents.
To learn more about Aviation Planning Group, visit https://www.theaviationplanninggroup.com/.
