Overarching airport regulations discussed
Despite putting the northern airport expansion project on hold in late May, the Forest Lake City Council approved a bid for the original plan at around $630,000.
The project will extend a taxi lane northward to connect four future hangars, and expand a taxiway to give southern hangars easier access to the runway.
The city will receive the majority of funding for the expansion project, set to be completed before mid-August, from MnDOT. With the completion of this project, there will be space for four new hangars along the taxi lane, though it is still undetermined whether they will be commercial or private.
“There’s some unknown there, but also I’m comfortable supporting this tonight because I think ultimately we also don’t need to make that decision before we move this project [along],” said Mayor Mara Bain at the Monday, June 10, council meeting.
This final approval of this expansion project was paused to allow the council time to reassess if it should pivot MnDOT funding to expand south to support around 11 hangars.
If Forest Lake had voted to halt this project and pivot to a larger expansion, it would have had to present the new project to MnDOT for fiscal year 2026.
“Helpful to hear MnDOT’s thoughts on pivoting these dollars to the south,” Bain said.
Going through with this current project doesn’t mean future expansions are off the table.
“Even though we’re going north, it doesn’t mean that we’re necessarily not ever going to go south. That is clearly a want and a desire,” council member Hanna Valento said.
The Forest Lake City Council ultimately approved this year’s project without changes from Tuesday, May 28, in a 3-1 vote with council member Blake Roberts opposing and council member Leif Erickson absent.
“We’re building a road, or taxiway, to nowhere – to four hangars. … We have an opportunity [with] more revenue coming in going to the south,” Roberts said prior to the approval.
At the late May meeting, Roberts and Erickson asked about the possibility to use northern expansion MnDOT funds for the south.
However, that idea was all but stifled after reexamining why the northern expansion was sought now during the council and airport commission joint meeting on Wednesday, June 5.
In 2018, Bolton & Menk began helping the city of Forest Lake become a more desirable candidate to compete for MnDOT funding for the city airport projects.
“We had discussions with MnDOT, with the airport commission, about what do you want Forest Lake to do to start competing better for funding for these projects,” said Bolton & Menk Principal Aviation Engineer Silas Parmar.
These early discussions yielded rough timelines and an airport master plan for when projects like runway or hangar expansions should take place, helping the city get to where it’s at today.
Prior to getting an organized plan of future projects, expansions and goals, the Forest Lake airport was hardly making a dent in the projects it wanted to complete.
“Since that’s occurred in 2021, Forest Lake has received more funding for projects kind of working together with MnDOT compared to just throwing everything, essentially, at the wall and seeing what they could fund,” Parmar said.
Despite being in a strong position to see projects funded with help from MnDOT, there aren’t additional dollars to pivot to a southern expansion this fiscal year.
Both Bain and council member Sam Husnik thought the northern expansion is where focus should remain instead of redirecting attention to return to the drawing board for a southern expansion, which they may or may not get funding for.
“This is a project we’ve had in the pipeline for a very long time. … Let’s move ahead to the north as planned and then let’s get our ducks in a row as soon as possible with expansion to the south,” Bain said at the joint meeting.
Airport regulations
During the joint Airport Commission and City Council meeting, there was general consensus that it could be beneficial to adopt a more uniform set of standards to oversee everyone who currently uses the airport or future lessees.
At the airport, there are three possible leasing options available, and it’s assumed that each lessee follows the terms of that lease, which may outline various terms of allowed or prohibited conduct, but those aren’t enforceable by the city.
Initially, airport commissioner Don Stehler was concerned that creating a set of regulations would govern lease holders under different rules from the lease agreement they follow and willingly signed.
“This is something you’re trying to slip in after the fact. … I’m not opposed categorically to having that sort of thing, but it can’t be an open door — it can’t be an open back door to change terms and conditions to leases,” Stehler said.
He lightened to the idea that some kind of rules can be hammered out with airport lessees’ input on it. topics like outdoor storage, parking requirements or ensuring no one uses a hangar as a residence.
“[To] Mr. Stehler’s point, … this could get out of hand. On the other hand, I like the point that you have to have some kind of regulation because we have some issues ... that might fall under these guidelines,” airport commissioner John Schmidt said.
With more than 30 people on a waitlist for airport property, there is a future need to ensure proper regulations are in place.
There was no fine-tuned discussion on proposed regulations at the joint meeting in early June.
“It’s a city-owned facility; you want some ability to enforce,” Bain said.
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