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Record of Proceedings

Ocala Airport Advisory Board Meeting - July 14, 2026

City Council & Boards — Tuesday, July 14, 2026
BodyOcala, Florida
SessionCity Council & Boards
DateTuesday, July 14, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 28:28

Original source
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0:00

Let's call the meeting to order.

0:02

And uh start with uh an invocation that Mr.

0:05

Boyd will focus.

0:08

All right.

0:10

Thank you.

0:11

Go ahead.

0:12

Yeah, absolutely.

0:13

Heavenly fellow, we just love you so much and just thank you for the opportunity to be here today and to serve.

0:17

And I just pray that you're you will got us and direct us or words.

0:22

Um pray, Father, that you give us wisdom how to make good decisions.

0:26

And um, Father, just pray that um to give us an opportunity to be a blessing to someone today in Jesus' name.

0:34

Amen.

0:36

Pledge.

0:37

Pledge leads.

0:40

The United States of America and two Republic stands.

0:44

One nation, other God.

0:48

For all roll call.

0:50

Harry Crawford.

0:52

I apologize for my lateness.

0:54

Randy Klein.

0:55

Here.

0:56

Kevin Reed.

0:57

Thomas Smollin, Thad Boyd.

1:00

Here.

1:01

All right.

1:02

We have a consideration of June minutes that were emailed.

1:05

Do we have any corrections or additions?

1:07

And if not, uh motion to approve them.

1:10

Uh move for approval.

1:12

And we have a second from Mr.

1:13

Second.

1:14

Second.

1:14

All in favor?

1:15

Aye.

1:16

All right.

1:17

Umfinished business, there's none.

1:19

New business.

1:21

Matt.

1:23

The master plan project uh is coming to a completion.

1:27

Uh we've got our consultants here from McFarlane Johnson, Robert Overby and uh Gavin Feinstock.

1:33

They're here to make a short presentation and without further ado.

1:42

Good morning.

1:45

Thank you for uh for having us here.

1:46

My name is Gavin Fonistock.

1:47

I'm the Southeast Planning Manager with McFarlane Johnson.

1:51

And uh we we are coming to the completion of the airport master plan, and so we wanted to present some high-level findings uh that we we had during this process uh and share what uh what we came up with for a plan for future development.

2:06

Uh so with that I I wanted to go through a couple of items.

2:11

Sorry.

2:12

Oh, it's on this one.

2:17

Okay.

2:18

So I'll I'll I'm gonna cover a few items within the master plan.

2:21

The master plan is a very comprehensive document uh and definitely take a lot more than five minutes to to go through every piece of it, but wanted to talk a little bit about the forecast, facility requirements, um, some of the alternative concepts that we had uh developed and then the capital improvement plan uh and then and then end with uh showing you what that airport layout plan is going to look like in the future.

2:42

So I definitely understand very small text here, but uh the the pictures on the right tell the story.

2:47

Uh what we found during the study was that there's a lot of uh strong growth, uh economic growth within the area that is driving more and more demand at the airport.

2:57

Now uh to be clear, when we were doing this master plan, we were focused on uh the existing types of operations at the airports.

3:05

Uh so we're looking at operations of aircraft and based aircraft at the airport.

3:10

Now it's not that we didn't look at things like commercial service or cargo or other future kinds of development.

3:15

We were focused on the forecast with those two areas.

3:19

And what we found was the operations are continuing to grow over time.

3:23

There's historical trends which uh supported that.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Airport Operations█████████████████████████████████████████████85%
Procedural███████13%
Capital Improvement Planning█2%
Summary of Proceedings

Ocala Airport Advisory Board Meeting - July 14, 2026

The Ocala Airport Advisory Board met on July 14, 2026, at 9:00 AM in the City Council Chambers. Key actions included approval of June meeting minutes, acceptance of a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Airport Improvement grant for Taxiway A Holding Bay design, approval of second-year extensions for two engineering consultant agreements, and a detailed presentation on the draft Airport Master Plan. The Airport Director provided updates on several ongoing projects. No public comments were made.

Consent Calendar / Routine Approvals

  • June Meeting Minutes: Approved by voice vote (motion by Mr. Klein, second by Mr. Reed).
  • Resolution to Accept FAA Grant for Taxiway A Holding Bay Design: Approved by voice vote (motion made, seconded, all in favor). The grant amount is $178,558 for design of a holding bay to improve departure efficiency.
  • Second Amendment to Agreement with McFarland Johnson, Inc.: Approved by voice vote, extending professional aviation engineering services for one additional year.
  • Second Amendment to Agreement with Infrastructure Consulting & Engineering, PLLC: Approved by voice vote, also extending services for one additional year.

Discussion Items

  • Airport Master Plan Presentation:

    • Gavin Feinstock (Southeast Planning Manager, McFarland Johnson) presented high-level findings of the completed draft master plan.
    • Key findings: Strong economic growth driving demand; operations forecast to grow at just under 4% annually, reaching over 200,000 annual operations in 20 years; fleet mix shifting to larger aircraft, requiring infrastructure changes.
    • Proposed improvements over short (0–5 years), medium (6–10 years), and long (11+ years) phases: runway extension to just over 7,800 feet, realignment of the crosswind runway (Runway 8/26) into a parallel runway (north-south) to improve capacity, relocation of navigational aids, new parallel Taxiway Charlie, rehabilitation of the main runway, and space reserved for a potential commercial service terminal.
    • Board members asked about the methodology for determining the crosswind runway is no longer necessary (wind data analysis showing >95% coverage on primary runway) and about the potential for additional T-hangars.
    • T-Hangar Discussion: The wait list is 35 people, but many pass when offered. Airport Director Matt stated preference to keep T-hangars on the east side near small aircraft users to avoid mixing with larger commercial traffic on the west side. Board members suggested exploring T-hangar development north of the Aeroplex as a quicker option. No vote was taken on this policy issue.

  • Airport Director's Report (Matt):

    • FDOT Pond Relocation: Task work order received, pending City Council approval to allow road extension to SW 60th Avenue.
    • MALSR/RPZ RY36 Grading: Still awaiting FAA grant.
    • Terminal Apron Rehab: 99% complete; waiting on concrete vault lids from France (backordered).
    • A9 Driveway: Near completion of design, in stormwater permitting.
    • A12 Infrastructure: In permitting; estimated $2 million for flat work; corporate interest noted.
    • Concrete Pads and T-Hangar Campus Rehab: Both to be bid together, in permitting.
    • TWY-C Phase I: Grant request submitted to state, being refined to include job creation data.
    • Airshow Planning: Planner in town coordinating with hotels, tourism board, police, and fire; detailed presentation planned for next meeting; event dates: April 30 - May 2, 2027.
    • Fuel and Ops: Operations down slightly year-over-year; fuel sales trending well.

Key Outcomes

  • Votes:
    • Approval of June meeting minutes (unanimous).
    • Approval of resolution accepting FAA grant for Taxiway A Holding Bay design (unanimous).
    • Approval of second amendments for McFarland Johnson and Infrastructure Consulting & Engineering contracts (unanimous).
  • Next Steps: The master plan is near final; staff to refine TWY-C grant application with job impact data; additional T-hangar location to be studied; airshow presentation at next meeting.
  • Adjournment: Motion made and approved, meeting ended.

Meeting Transcript

Let's call the meeting to order. And uh start with uh an invocation that Mr. Boyd will focus. All right. Thank you. Go ahead. Yeah, absolutely. Heavenly fellow, we just love you so much and just thank you for the opportunity to be here today and to serve. And I just pray that you're you will got us and direct us or words. Um pray, Father, that you give us wisdom how to make good decisions. And um, Father, just pray that um to give us an opportunity to be a blessing to someone today in Jesus' name. Amen. Pledge. Pledge leads. The United States of America and two Republic stands. One nation, other God. For all roll call. Harry Crawford. I apologize for my lateness. Randy Klein. Here. Kevin Reed. Thomas Smollin, Thad Boyd. Here. All right. We have a consideration of June minutes that were emailed. Do we have any corrections or additions? And if not, uh motion to approve them. Uh move for approval. And we have a second from Mr. Second. Second. All in favor? Aye. All right. Umfinished business, there's none. New business. Matt. The master plan project uh is coming to a completion. Uh we've got our consultants here from McFarlane Johnson, Robert Overby and uh Gavin Feinstock. They're here to make a short presentation and without further ado. Good morning. Thank you for uh for having us here. My name is Gavin Fonistock. I'm the Southeast Planning Manager with McFarlane Johnson. And uh we we are coming to the completion of the airport master plan, and so we wanted to present some high-level findings uh that we we had during this process uh and share what uh what we came up with for a plan for future development. Uh so with that I I wanted to go through a couple of items. Sorry. Oh, it's on this one. Okay.

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