Gulf County moves forward on airport plans
Posted on 03/31/2025
![This map shows a basic outline of the configuration of the proposed airport. [ CHA Consulting ]](https://cdnsm5-hosted.civiclive.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_10446924/Image/News & Media/Airport-Layout-Plan-2048x922.jpg)
By David Adlerstein
If all goes well, it likely won’t be until at least 2029 before planes would take off and land at a new Gulf County airport, assuming the federal and state funding for the proposed project, which cover as much as 90 percent or more of the overall cost, all come in as hoped.
At a Feb. 19 workshop, Gulf County commissioners heard a report from CHA Consulting, Inc., the Albany, New York-based firm with multiple offices in Florida, which the county has brought in to do the feasibility study, secure Federal Aviation Authority and Florida Department of Transportation approvals, OK site selection and environmental planning, and coordinate design.
Paul Puckli, the CHA vice-president who serves as the project liaison, said FDOT has given a thumbs-up after reviewing the feasibility. “They are supportive of the program (subject) to review and approval, from a funding standpoint,” he said.
He said the next step will be to get the project into the Florida state system plan,and after that into the FAA’s national plan, which is required of all US airports if they are to be eligible for funding.
“The project is moving along well, we’re well into it and we hope to continue to get funding,” said Puckli. “We’ve done surveys and gotten a positive response, that maybe we can get investment, equity partners to help develop the airport.”
County Administrator Michael Hammond said the county is hoping to get upwards of a $2 million appropriation from the state legislature this session, after three consecutive years of receiving such funds.
In outlining the project, Project Manager Jose Blanco said the proposed airport could be a critical component within the medical field, as it would be less congested than a commercial airport for air ambulance and organ transport needs, as well as for disaster relief, search-and-rescue operations and firefighting.
“Emergency response personnel can fly right in,” he said. “It’s a faster transportation method.”
In addition, Blanco said, with stepped-up flight training, it “opens up the ability to get more pilots on board.”
He said relocating the emergency operations center to the site could be a possibility, and a helipad could be situated there. “All the different areas could meet at the EOC and come up with a game plan to how we respond,” Blanco said.
The economic impact of a new airport could be considerable, based on data he provided from a 2022 FDOT economic impact study, which he said measures everything, including jobs, both full and parttime, as well as value added, which includes employee compensation as well as taxes paid, and the entire economic impact, which includes the entire output from the airport.
He said the FDOT data indicated the total number of jobs created in FDOT District 3 was about 145,800, with a $7.9 billion payroll and $7.7 billion value added, for a total economic impact of $18.9 billion.
For the Apalachicola airport alone, he said the FDOT study shows 109 jobs created, with a $4.8 million payroll, plus $7.8 million in value added, for a total economic output of $16.6 million. “A snowball effect tends to happen,” Blanco said. “Theres not a clout of counties in Florida having a port. We received letters of interest that they would potentially invest in the airport once it was up and running.”
Fred Loeffler, the project manager, said a feasibility study showed an airport layout plan with a 6,500-foot long, and 100-foot wide runway, with a 60-foot wide. Dewberry Engineering, which did the surveying, design and permitting, said 1,985 linear feet of roadway reconfiguration, and 2,155 linear feet of entrance roadway, would be done along State Route 71 for the roughly 1,000-acre site just south of White City and north of Port St. Joe.
Commissioner Randy Pridgeon, in whose district is the airport site and who was instrumental in getting the workshop planned, asked the airport consultants about questions that have been raised by the Bay Defense Alliance, regarding their ability to bring in extra squadrons over to Tyndall once the Gulf County airport was established.
“We believe the airspace issues can be worked out,” said Puckli.
Hammond responded by noting that Tyndall has not filed a letter of objection to Gulf County’s plans. “Franklin County has been hostile,” he said. “And ECP (Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport) has been supportive.”
Pridgeon said he has spoken to several pilots, who have planes in Apalachicola, who have said that the airport in Franklin County is closer to them than White City.
“Why wouldn’t we partner with Franklin?” he asked. “I want to have all our ducks in a row before we move forward with this.”
Puckli said that the consultants have had to provide “surveys to justify it to the FAA” and that their claims for funding have had to be backed up to secure state and federal funding.
“Franklin County may move business over but that’s now what we’re planning for,” he said. “This is about new business in Gulf County.”
In an interview this week, Hammond outlined a process that dates back to about 2007, when the county tried unsuccessfully to partner with Franklin County.
In 2012, Gulf County had considered buying and expanding the Costin Airport, he said, but that did not come to fruition.
After talks that came about after Hurricane Michael, the St. Joe Company agreed to donate the property, which could be tied into a port and rail connection, Hammond said.
“We have an agreement that when it gets funded they’ll donate the property,” he said. “They would have the right to lease it back and operate it, but we’ll be the catalyst to get it funded. It would be owned by the county but we don’t have expertise and staff to operate it.”
He said the largest expense is likely to be the land clearing, wetland mitigation and fencing, but stressed that the county’s in-kind contribution match, roughly 5 percent of the cost, could be based on $50 million worth of property.
“The federal government is the biggest player in this and the state DOT is the next biggest,” he said, noting that “until we bid it we won’t have an idea” what the overall cost would be.
“The county has no commitment for any cash in this project,” Hammond said. “We have a request in (the state budget) for up to $2 million they have funded three years previous. It would pave the entrance road and infrastructure to the site to get FAA funding.”
He said he doesn’t foresee the start of the project before 2028 at the earliest. “I’m hoping maybe before that,” Hammond said. “This will be a positive. I think having that extra amenity, whether it’s for economic development or tourist development, there are a lot of positives.”