Ormond Beach Airport Project

The City says that your Company's proposal requires the City to guarantee all of the improvements before FAA approval. Is that true?

This is a misunderstanding by the City. No such insistence on the Company's part exists. We have explained this on numerous occasions to the City Staff, but the City Staff continues to contend, for an unexplained reason, that we insist on a guarantee.

The City says that they want the Airport to create jobs. The Team Arnie B. Green Associates, Inc.'s proposal creates simply aircraft storage hangars. Is that true?

We have shown the City Staff in detail, using standard and accepted FAA methods of estimating job impact, that the positive impact of our project on jobs is in fact quite substantial. There has been no credible, methodical challenge to our estimates, only apparent unsubstantiated assertions of this type, for some unexplained reason.

The FAA interprets the willingness of a prospective provider to lease space and invest in facilities as sufficient evidence of a public need for those services.

In such a situation, the FAA does not accept a sponsor's (city) claim of insufficient business activity as a valid reason to restrict the prospective provider access to the airport.

Why is the City Staff vision of the ideal use of the airport property being used for aircraft manufacturing or similiar activity which would create a large number of jobs not practical?

The ability to attract and have such an activity relocate, or startup, on the unimproved property at the Ormond Beach Municipal Airport is extraordinarily minuscule based on the infrastructure that currently exists at the Airport.

At this early stage of the Project Concept Proposal, the City Staff asking for and/or requiring a very specific and narrow use such as an aircraft parts manufacturing facility is unrealistic.

Needless to say, given nothing is built yet on the Southwest Quadrant of the Airport, the City Staff can't possibly expect the development team to have a company lined up so far in advance, given the fact that the Team hasn't even begun negotiating with the City of Ormond Beach for a lease yet.

The City Economic Development Director requested that your company produce its planned Power Point visual aid presentation to the scheduled January 12, 2012 meeting of the City Selection Committee. Why did your company not provide it to the City 10 days in advance of the oral presentation?

The oral presentation Power Point visual aid slides were simply something the development team wanted to use as a supplement to its oral discussions with the Selection Committee. They were never designed or intended to be used as a formal briefing or report because they could be misinterpreted, confusing and would not be understood in advance without the accompanying Team oral discussion.

There was never a requirement made by the Selection Committee's October 13, 2011 written request for additional oral discussion material that the Team even provide a formal brief, report or a Power Point Presentation. The Team had not planned on and had not finalized the presentatiobn visual aid slides and wasn't going to do so until just prior to the scheduled January 12, 2012 City Selection Committee meeting.

The City claims that they are thinking about developing the Southwest Quadrant of the Airport themselves. Is that true?

As of June 30, 2012, the City of Ormond Beach had neither discussed, planned, nor taken any steps and/or quantified the associated risks required to develop the Southwest Quadrant of the Ormond Beach Airport on its own, despite their claims to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The City appears to be discouraging aeronautical development at the Airport. Is this in response to noise complaints from residents who reside in the vicinity of the Airport?

We acknowledge that an interest in maintaining public support for an airport may prove beneficial for airport development, but the City cannot let local interests objecting to aircraft noise infringe on the City's ability to operate, maintain and improve its Airport.

The Company's proposed a robust "Fly Friendly at Ormond Beach" Noise Abatement Program focusing on pilot education and cooperation. We derived the program from noise abatement procedures published by the City of Ormond Beach Municipal Airport, Federal Aviation Administration and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA): Guide to Obtaining Community Support for Your Local Airport: Airport Noise, Safety and Airport Land Use Planning Guidelines" which clearly demonstrate our understanding of the concerns of Ormond Beach as it relates to airport noise.

The City appears to be discouraging aeronautical development at the Airport. Why doesn't Team Arnie B. Green Associates, Inc. take its proposal to another airport?

We simply want the city to negotiate in good faith. The development and operations team strongly believe in this project and the economic benefits it will bring, including investment, construction, attraction of new business, and good paying jobs. Arnie B. Green Associates, Inc. and its team of professionals already have made a significant investment in the project, and we are determined to see it to completion.