Australian Residential Airparks

[Old Koreelah]

White steel is a bit more reflective than shiny aluminium and is the best colour if you want your house cool.

 

 

[Blackhawk]

Once title is granted, there is little the Council can do. The planning part is there to mitigate future problems. Developers will "tell you anything.." to get the approval at the least cost to them. Then future land owners have to live with it. I suspect the restriction to <600kg recreational had to do with the developer talking his way out of sealing the strip and taxiway by saying they won't fly much and they prefer grass. The land owners (the Body Corp) will have to deal with complaints from Council about GA aircraft and excessive noise, movements etc. and pay the rates, insurance, maintenance etc on the strip and club-house (landing fees anyone?). Then again, as I have seen before, the whole thing could be on-sold to another developer as a potential for $11mil in sales for little outlay, for them to develop. This development is not attractive to me, as firstly we would have to hangar one of our planes elsewhere and never fly home with it, secondly I think the house/hangar build and on-going body corp costs (going into retirement) will be more than we can justify and thirdly, it looks just like suburbia. It might suit someone else with a spare $mil.

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Just thought I would let you all know a bit about the developer of this airpark.

 

I’ve got to know the owner very well after my contact with him 8 years ago when he first started this project.

 

The developers are Derek and Ginny Gould who are very nice down to earth people and Derek is also a RAAus pilot.

 

Living in Sydney they found the airfields Derek flew from were being swallowed up by developers for residential developments, so they started looking for alternatives for themselves and were told about this property in Yengarie near Maryborough that had an airstrip.

 

After coming up to have a look they decided to purchase this property but at that time had no thought of an Airpark Development.

 

After they began living at the property they were told an American developer had looked at this property a couple of years previously to turn it into an airpark but couldn't convince the local council at the time of its potential.

 

Derek then started to look into the idea of developing part of the property as a Residential Airpark Estate which over the past 8 years has had untold brick walls put in place by local councils at the time, changes in state government policies, council amalgamations etc; any sane person would have put it in the too hard basket and forgotten about it.

 

Luckily with the change of government when Newman took over, most of the restrictions that the Bligh government put in place were removed, so Derek decided to give it another go and see if he could get it approved, which finally after another 3 years and a lot of expense, it was approved by the current Fraser Coast Regional Council who are very pro aviation.

 

So Sue, I find your comments regarding what you say the developer is going to do and the assumptions you make on his behalf which are totally absurd and for a person who is a Civil Engineer and has worked with councils I couldn't believe my eyes when I read your comments; especially when the only credible statement was “This development is not attractive to me”

 

Remember the old saying “You can please some of the people some of the time, but you'll never please all of the people all of the time” How true that is.

 

Some information that you may be oblivious to is that; nearly every Residential Airpark in Australia is operated by a Body Corporate formed by the owners of properties within the airpark, even the new Gympie, Cumulus Airpark is operated this way.

 

I assume that if no current airparks meet your criteria you may be thinking of developing your own airpark especially with your credentials as a Civil Engineer, (but then I doubt that would ever happen.)

 

And by the way, all the blocks are Freehold and Derek (as the owner of the existing residence on the property) will be a member of the Body Corporate with the same 1 Vote that every other property owner has in the development.

 

 

[eightyknots]

Top marks for Derek and Ginny's perseverance.

 

I hope other RA Aus pilots will do the same: it is another method to extend the sport.

 

 

[steven67]

Hi all, have been pondering the idea of an airpark for some years now . how do you think you would get on if you formed a syndicate to buy a block of land in order to develope your own airpark.obviously i know you would need shire approval and all that jazz which might take some time and then the land might not be available anymore.we could all chip in to buy the block and all get our own block on that block and then sell the rest to pay for the construction of runways and facilities.i like the look of the Denmark setup,and only saying that because im in WA.I doubt there are any blocks left there anyway.how would it be run if it was privately owned and not council owned.how would you work out things like airstrip maintenance and the like ? any ideas or knowledge would be appreciated

 

 

[facthunter]

I support anyone trying to do an airpark, but like all things go well into the details before you start. Council run things don't run, although With Caravan Parks it might be a good thing to have a low cost park to keep tourists in the town when private ones charge like wounded bulls. Nev

 

 

[Nobody]

Hi all, have been pondering the idea of an airpark for some years now . how do you think you would get on if you formed a syndicate to buy a block of land in order to develope your own airpark.obviously i know you would need shire approval and all that jazz which might take some time and then the land might not be available anymore.we could all chip in to buy the block and all get our own block on that block and then sell the rest to pay for the construction of runways and facilities.i like the look of the Denmark setup,and only saying that because im in WA.I doubt there are any blocks left there anyway.how would it be run if it was privately owned and not council owned.how would you work out things like airstrip maintenance and the like ? any ideas or knowledge would be appreciated

If you are serious the best thing you could do is go to the USA, rent an aircraft for 2 weeks and fly to as many of the airparks as you can. You will meet a lot of interesting people, see a side of america most Australians never see or understand and learn a lot about airparks.

 

A few useful links:

 

http://livingwithyourplane.com/ >>> General Airpark Information

 

http://www.throughthefence.org/ >>> Information about the issues being faced in some areas with access to council/FAA owned airports.

 

Community

 

If you do go to the US one of the things you will find at all of the successful airparks is a strong seance of community. There will be a mix of people who all like to fly and have fun flying.

 

Airport Ownership

 

The issues of airport ownership is really one of balancing cost versus control. If the residents own the airport land then they have the ability to decide how it is used and the terms over access to it. If the airport is owned by the council then the residents loose a lot of control consider how some of the following situations might play out.

 

1. The local council becomes hostile and decides that access to the airport from adjacent privately owned land is no longer permitted. This situation has happened in Jindabyne where a fence was built by the council across the front of a hangar many years ago.
    
    
   
2. How about if the local flying school starts training 1000 airline cadet students per year? If the council owns the airport they might be very supportive of this however this could make taxiing or operating out of the airport difficult.
    
    
   
3. What if the region becomes large enough to attract RPT flights? How does the security fence/boundary work then? It would suck to have to wear an asic in your own backyard.
    
    
   
4. What if the pavement is allowed to degrade to the point that the runway is no longer usable? Rather than spending $1m to fix it the council decides to close the airport and sell the land.
    
    
   

 

 

In most of these situations the residents owning the land gives greater certainty. Even in situation 4 they might decide to spend some of the money to keep it open, or hopefully are able to do regular maintenance to prevent it becoming a big issue.

 

House Design

 

I believe that many of the airparks in Australia have poorly designed houses and are probably not places that I would like to live. They feel like industrial areas because the hangars are huge and dominate the landscape/streetscape and take up the whole backyard. In many of the situations you get the feeling that people dont actually want to live there, they just want a hangar site. Check out Narromine on google maps to see what I mean:

 

The US airpark homes typically have rules about hangar sizes and house sizes that while more restrictive mean that the "suburb" that is created is pleasant and nice to live in. Hopefully the Ryalstone one will work well by having a zone for hangars only on one side of the runway with an areas for residential housing on the other side. In the USA it is easier to have development covenants on the land where the current owner can restrict what is done in the future. One thing you want to avoid is people buying lots and then not building on them for 20 years. Again in the USA some airparks have building time limitation in their covenants.

 

Biobanking/Ecology Offset

 

Biobanking is a system where land is preserved in order to allow development elsewhere. A developer with land close to the city might want to clear it but in order to do that needs to protect similar land in another location and they would pay you to protect yours. It prevents future development on that land so you need a good master plan but the money available can pay for a lot of taxiway/runway. If you are looking at buying a site to convert to an airpark look into this as you may find that in some areas native grassland is a sought after ecology type and that the overruns at the end of the runways can be used for this. If your site has cross runways then there are often bits of land "left over" that can also be used for this.

 

I have a few more thoughts but don't have the time to add them here right now.

 

 

[Nobody]

OK A few more points:

 

Lot Sizes

 

You need to get the lot sizes correct. Many councils will have rules requiring large lots in rural land areas. If the council requires a minimum lot size of 4000m2 then this limits the community feel of the place. In an airpark all the neighbors have a shared passion for aircraft and living closer to one another is ok. People like to go for a walk on a nice evening to loot at the aircraft coming and going. You need the council to allow for lot sizes approx 700 to 1000m2 which they might do if the total sizes of the site including the communal are are taken into account and perhaps more so if there is some other ecology offset type arrangement (see above)

 

Taxiway design

 

There are 2 ways that the taxiways are able to be laid out

 

Double Frontage.

 

With this the arrangement the roads are one side of the houses and the taxiways are the other side of the houses. This has some advantages in that the land side and the air side are separated leading to greater safety. It does require that the layout dosent cut off access to the runways leading to simple suburb layouts and requires more of the area to be paved leading to cost. The other issue is that the houses have no backyard because both sides face a public thoroughfare.

 

For example see:

 

http://falmouthairpark.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Map-Trans.png

 

The alternative to this is where the cars and the aircraft use the same space. This means that the houses can have a more conventional front and a rear with the cars and aircraft both entering from the same direction. From a safety point of view this works if the cars are driven by aviation aware drivers. IT means that you can park in the street as it will block access for aircraft and there needs to be an awareness that cars drive slowly and give way to aircraft. This method would be difficult in Australia if the road area was handed over to council ownership following development as most roads in developments are because you are effectively operating an unregistered vehicle (aircraft) on a public road.

 

See as an example Cameron airpark, but note that while this has wide paved taxiways, you could have a narrow paved strip with a lawn verge to provide the necessary width :

 

Other Issues

 

• How do you want to handle unregistered/unlicensed vehicles/drivers operating on the air side? Is it OK it have an old postie bike to go and visit friends at the other end of the air strip? How about a golf cart? When the neighbors 12 year old gets a 2 stroke dirt bike? Having at least thought about these issues you can put something about them in the regulations/agreement.
   
   
  
• Upgrades to the Airport. Eg do you want need a sealed runway? Lights? AWIS weather broadcast? How do you decide that these are needed. Remember that not everyone is content to fly a drifter from a grass padlock. If these services are not installed on day one how will the upgrade process be implemented and paid for. If people buy land expecting that in a few years the runway is sealed are they entitled to a refund if that doesn't happen?
   
   
  
• What do you do if someone fails to pay their contribution to the maintenance of the air side facilities? If you cut off their runway access if they don't pay, for some people they may not be interested in aviation and so this is no real deterrent. Can you put a lein of their land so that it cant be sold until the account is paid up?
   
   
  

 

 

 

 

[Blackhawk]

Hello All members,

 

Just letting you all know that the (Yengarie Airpark, west of Maryborough in Queensland) now has its official name of AQUILA AIRPARK.

 

The airpark was approved for development by the Fraser Coast Regional Council in October last year and currently survey work is now being undertaken starting with the Maryborough/Biggenden State Main Road intersection being upgraded to cater for the traffic into the Airpark Estate.

 

I will be posting more information in the next few days and months to come and keeping you all updated on the progress for those of you that may be interested in setting down your wheels here.

 

Graeme

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

I have spoken to the developer of Yengarie Airpark and the requirements are; No relocatable homes of any type are permitted, all homes to be built with new materials with roofs being tiles or colourbond (no galvanised or zinc allowed) and full colourbond homes will not be permitted.Any future increase in MTOW weight by recreational aviation bodies will be included into the Airpark Operations and Safety manual.

Blackhawk

 

Did the council stipulate the type of materials for the houses?.... Building anything with wood in it up that way is just termite fodder. This is why so many places are colourbond houses..Class 1 style buildings (sheds on steroids). I know at my farm its a Class 1 dwelling going up....termite mounds are everywhere up past Gympie.

 

Glad at least they will allow for the weight increase...hopefully this year it comes and up to 750kg

 

 

[Blackhawk]

Hi Kyle

 

No, it wasn't a stipulation of the council, but all residential subdivisions are governed by a covenant which identifies the types of buildings allowed to be built and this is put in place by the developer and supplied to council as part of the Development Application.

 

As far as termites are concerned, yes they are around everywhere in Qld, and most other states; it's just the species vary's.

 

I live at Pacific Haven on 6 acres and built my house 10 years ago with a treated pine frame and Hebal panel exterior and haven't had any problems with termites and have never had the house sprayed for pests.

 

A professional Gold Coast builder on the other hand, with probably 40 odd years experience built a very expensive home on the other side of the airstrip here and had all his skirting's, architraves and door jambs eaten out with white ants within 2 years because he used ordinary pine (and he's a professional)

 

In termite areas you should use either Meranti, Tasmanian Oak or cypress pine for all your trims which white ants will not touch and always keep a minimum 100mm vertical barrier from the ground level to the slab (yes, my house is on a slab)

 

Unfortunately there won't be any colourbond clad buildings allowed except for 1 aircraft hangar per lot in attached, semi-detached or detached form.

 

 

[Valdiviano]

rylstoneaerodrome.com.au

 

 

[CAVU Mark]

Speer Field on Gillespie Field in El Cajon, CA is a nice example of a small community on a midsized airport. The entire airport has a sense of community. Speer Field is $600k and up for lot and hangar but they are suppose to be part time accommodations. My wife and I are planning a trip next week to explore the airparks for my RV3 and a place to build. I need a Museum in which to volunteer. Speer Field at Gillespie Field - El Cajon, California - Travel and transport, Religious centre | Facebook

 

 

[Love to fly]

This one may be of interest. About 30 minutes from Townsville CBD.

 

Facilities - Bluewater MFS

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

Another airpark - Vanderwolf Road, Bunya Creek, Qld - in the area between Hervey Bay, River Heads, Susan River. There are two existing runways, the longest runs the length of the road. The following announcement by the Fraser Coast Regional Council today:-

 

Bunya Creek Residential Airpark

 

Council has approved an application to develop a residential airpark at Bunya Creek.

 

 

 

The 60.7 hectare site along Vanderwolf Road will be developed into 42 community title lots over four stages. It currently has two runway strips for light aircraft.

 

 

 

 

 

The development will provide potential residents with the opportunity to live in a community that has a shared interest in aviation, as well as the ability to garage their plane adjacent to their home.

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Tocumwal on the Murray river has just opened a residential Airpark 2 KM east of town.https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tocumwal-Airpark/309601965884153

 

The land is freehold on a great historical airport.

 

The price is at a giveaway by the council to cover cost of development.

 

Power, town water, town sewage, and extremely large blocks

Grrr!!! Should have looked for aussie flying forums a couple of years ago (when I was a little more cash rich)... I have been looking at realestate.com.au, realcommercial.com.au and domain.com.au (as well as google searches) for property in Tocumwal at least weekly for about the last 5 years and these have never come up. I would have bought one as "Toc" is where I want to retire to and although I have been waiting for a certain accommodation property to come up for sale as freehold, would have jumped at the airpark.

 

Mind you, I have never seen YTOC with grass that green before!

 

Still, it's great to see Aus is embracing an array of airpark developments and long may it continue. Here, the councils are definitely not public servants; one company is trying hard to establish an airpark, but has yet been able to: Home

 

If Toc adds any more blocks, someone drop me a PM, please!!!!

 

 

[Blackhawk]

Well, the latest news for the Aquila Airpark in Maryborough is :  DEAD

 

There has been no interest shown since the FCRC Approval and the owner/developer has called it quits; he's not prepared to spend $5M on the off chance some aviators may become interested.

 

He has the property up for sale on  https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-yengarie-130542762

 

Development Approval has lapsed and is not included, but could be resubmitted by new owners. 

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

Seems the airpark is back on.  Here's the video I got through AOPA.  I know the site, there's nothing much there, only the two hangars, a house and what remains of a runway unused for years.  The video says they expect 40% of houses will be plane owners.  That frightens me; 60% may be complaining about aircraft taking up the road, and kids riding on the strip.  The gym, cafe & tennis courts are a bit pie in the sky for the small population.  The Council previously restricted aircraft to ultralight (under 600kg) only.  Can only wish them luck, where previous owners have tried this since about 2007.

 

 

[Marty_d]

Surely all owners would have to sign some sort of legal agreement that the flying activities are an integral part of the development, as part of the sale agreement.

If the 60% really don't like planes I can't see them buying a place on an airpark.

(Mind you I do understand that people are illogical creatures at times.)

[facthunter]

A lot can't stand others enjoying themselves with planes and bikes. Nev

[FlyingVizsla]

This is what the Developer said in the media release through AOPA

 

“We project that only 40 per cent of residents will be pilots with access to their own personal plane or helicopters, however the lifestyle, location and amenities on offer will be attractive to all buyers whether they intend to live there permanently or have it as a holiday home. "

 

"Alongside 62 blocks for private residences, VFR Developments’ $65 million, 50-hectare Aquila Estate and Flying Club – located 15 minutes from Maryborough – will include one grassed and one 850m asphalt runway, as well as shared hangars, access to uncontrolled airspace, and a clubhouse."

 

"Only daytime flights operating under visual flight rules will be permitted, with the airstrip sharing CTAF 126.55 with nearby Maryborough and Hervey Bay airports. While the community permits residents who do not own aircraft, all houses will be required to include an allowance for a hangar to be built later."

 

 

They are billing it as 30% sold, but I strongly suspect that is the parts that are not for sale (airstrips, buffers, bushland, common areas etc) and none of the blocks have SOLD on them.  Remax are the selling agents.  Prices start from $315,000 for the smallest block.  Body Corporate is estimated at $4,000 pa.  Houses will need to do their own solar / battery power, water, septic system as no services are provided.  The Developer is offering architect assistance, project management (for a fee), hire cars based at Hervey Bay and Maryborough (should you own a plane larger than that permitted at the airpark), and assistance with learning to fly through the ultralight school at Maryborough Qld. 

 

It is 45 Watson Rd Yengarie, if you want to have a look.  I know they paid about $875k for the whole thing.  Hopefully the Council will force them to build the infrastructure before releasing the freehold blocks.  I couldn't afford to live there.

Edited February 5 by FlyingVizsla
Fixed the address

[facthunter]

This sort of thing existed at Wentworth. Does anyone know how that is going? Also Yarrawonga.   Nev

[KRviator]

$315 for an unserviced block in an airpark? Flamin' eck...

Two blocks available with through-the-fence access to Scone Airport went for a little under $350 last year - and they're, fully serviced. And with no body corporate fees either. A third was sold for $900 with private taxiway access, a nice house & big hangar already on it a couple years prior while a 4th fully serviced block with private taxiway access to Scone went for under $300 about the same time.