The Carroll County Board of Adjustment will be making a decision on a request for a variance from Loren Danner that will allow the retention of a grain leg constructed on his property approximately two miles south of the Carroll Airport. Danner received approval to construct the grain leg in January of 2013 from the Carroll County Planning and Zoning Department. Greg Seimann, a member of the Carroll Airport Commission, said this was in violation of two ordinances within the Airport Protection Plan, which the county had adopted in 1978.
Seimann said there is an approximately two-mile diameter protected airspace to above 150 feet in height. The grain leg that was built on the Danner farm is on a hill at the end of runways 1-3 and 3-1, and the commission says it protrudes 61 feet into that protected space. The second ordinance violation that Seimann cited is that the leg interferes with the federal published instrument approach for aircraft coming into the Carroll Airport. He said it is illegal for any construction to alter those approaches, but the height of the leg has caused two instrument approaches to be increased by 100 feet each. At tonight’s meeting, Danner is requesting an exception to those ordinances.
The trial on this matter is scheduled for Tuesday, March 14 at the Carroll County Courthouse, and Seimann said the commission is discussing their plans if the variance is approved at tonight’s meeting.
Seimann said the Airport Commission had expected the Carroll County Board of Supervisors to address the issue shortly after they filed the lawsuit years ago, but they are resolute in continuing to ensure that the “61-foot problem” goes away. He says it is a hazard to the Carroll Airport, which is a regional hub that has more air traffic than all of the surrounding counties combined.
The commission is also very concerned there may be some situations that could lead to an accident with a helicopter, medical helicopter, agriculture airplane or a pilot in distress needing to make an emergency landing at the Carroll Airport. Danner did not respond to requests for an interview with Carroll Broadcasting. The Board of Adjustment meeting will take place at 7 p.m. tonight in the second-floor supervisors’ board room at the Carroll County Courthouse.
