The Arlington City Council held a special meeting on October 22, 2024, starting at 1:15 PM in the Council Briefing Room. The meeting included an executive session for legal and real estate matters, followed by a work session and discussion of committee items. Key presentations included an update on the airport fixed-base operator (FBO) and the Safe Streets Arlington Plan. Committees reported on tree preservation, charter amendments, unfinished structures, electric contract renewal, and a housing bond request. The council also discussed several evening agenda items and future agenda items.
3.1 Airport/Fixed Base Operator Update
Trent Ballard, Airport Manager, reported on the FBO operation taken over in April 2024. Key points: the airport has a $236 million economic impact and over 900 jobs; annual aircraft operations are steady at 120,000–130,000; the FBO generated $5 million in revenue in FY2024 with a $425,000 ending balance (exceeding the projected $39,000). Fuel sales for the first six months totaled 615,000 gallons with a net profit of $748,000. The airport ranks competitively on fuel pricing, being the lowest within 25 miles for self-serve Avgas. Future projects include an FBO remodel and co-location with EVTOL operations. Council members asked about operations count, maintenance opportunities, and potential for commercial services like JSX.
3.2 Safe Streets Arlington Plan Overview
Ann Foss presented the safety action plan, funded by a SS4A grant. The plan aims for a 5% annual reduction in fatal and serious injury crashes, with a goal of zero by 2050. Crash data from 2018–2022 showed 937 fatal/serious injury crashes and 167 fatalities (avg. 33/year). A high-injury network identified top corridors (Collins, Cooper, Division, Lamar, Park Row, Pioneer) and 11 priority intersections. The plan includes seven strategies with engineering, education, enforcement, and equity actions. A safety dashboard is online. Next steps: P&Z action on Nov. 13, council hearings Nov. 19 and Dec. 10, then apply for implementation funding. Council discussed goal attainability and the aspirational nature of Vision Zero.
4.1 Municipal Policy Committee (Councilmember Odom-Wesley)
4.2 Finance and Audit Committee (Councilmember Hunter)
4.3 Arlington Housing Finance Corporation (Councilmember Hunter)
Council members discussed several items from the evening consent agenda:
Councilmember Odom-Wesley requested adding council compensation to future agenda items and a method for council members to share information from committee/commission meetings they attend.
Okay. We'll go ahead and call the afternoon session of the city council meeting to order. What time is it here? Okay. Let's go ahead and get the afternoon session called back to order. We are going to move on to 3.1 and talk about the airport trend. Good afternoon, Mayor Council Trip Ballard Airport Manager. I'm here to give you an update on the airport and the fixed-based operator fixed-based operator operation that we took over back in April. Just kind of give you an idea of how that's going. So a little bit about the airport. We're 236 million dollar economic impact to the city, over 900 jobs. Reclassified to a national airport back in 2022. We've got 14 base jets and about 210 total based aircraft. The chart on the right kind of gives you an idea of what the operational trend of aircraft have been at the airport over the last eight fiscal years. And then you see a really big jump from FY21 to 22, and that has to do, I think, with the airline industry coming out with higher pay for their for their uh pilots that are trying to recruit and the regional airlines starting to bring up their pay, uh, which you really started to see ATP take off with their flight training um operations out there. And so we're kind of holding steady in that 120 to 130,000 uh aircraft operation range right now. Um some of the airport-related projects that we have going on. Uh we've got a drainage improvement that's in design right now for the south end of the airport. Um we'll be adding a detention pond on the south uh southeast corner of the runway. Not the best location, but really kind of the only option we have to kind of slow the water down from going into Fish Creek. So we'll be uh I think we're at 60% design on that right now, looking to have construction going uh in the later part of FY25. Uh we're also in the middle of an airport layout plan update just due to the nature of all the projects that we've done recently and what we have coming in the future warranted an up an actual update to our ALP and not just a pen and ink change. Um so we're in the process of that. Um EVTAL or electric vertical takeoff and landing, uh Verdeport and FBO terminal. We're looking to co-locate those right now. Um that gave us a kind of a cost-effective option to have EVTO operations um, hopefully in preparation for the World Cup. Um so that's what we're working on there. Um, e-space facility was a satellite manufacturing company on the west side of the airport, and then MLK junior drive finally um getting underway and coming through, uh, which will give us the access we need to the west side. Um so you've got this is kind of a map um of what our ALP would look will look like. Um so we've got our E V V E V Tall facility, the ultimate build out down in that southeast corner, um, which is up to the the top right of the sheet. Um we've got some a box hanger development that's that could have some potential in the northeast corner, the green shaded area. Uh and then you have the west side development, which is the e-space facility, and then future expansion of the airport on the west side. Um, and then the the pink area right in the middle, that's where the uh the EVTAL and the FEO is currently located, and that's where we're looking to have those operations uh in the in the interim. Uh talk a little bit about T Hanger reversion. So the last couple of years we've had some hangars um that have started to revert to the airport, which is a good thing. Um we no longer just receive the money for the for the land lease. We're actually receiving the money for the land and the actual vertical improvements that were made by the developer 30,000, 40 years ago. So FMF Corporation, which is the hangers that are highlighted in green, those reverted to city ownership on September 27th of this year. So that's a pretty significant jump in revenue. And then we expect the same with the airport properties when it reverts back in uh back to the city's ownership in December of 2025. We'll see kind of a similar jump in revenue at that time. Um talk a little bit about the budget. So when we adopted the budget uh back or did the budget event back in April for the FBO coming online, we were kind of projecting to have about a $39,000 ending balance. Um I'm pleased to say that you'll we're we're gonna end the year about $425,000 as an ending balance for uh for the airport revenue coming in. Um and then you know, kind of giving you a snapshot of what was in the budget book about uh for proposed FY25. Um we asked for a little bit more on the fuel just in case we do have a really outstanding year with all the events that are going on that we don't have to come back for a budget amendment. We kind of have some buffer built in there. Um so overall really pleased with how the FBO operation is going out at the airport. Um so talking about Arlington Air Center and the FBO, just to give you a little review of what happened there. Um, so we made a 17 million dollar investment uh in acquiring the fixed base operator from Harrison Aviation back on April 1st of 2024.