A plan which was first conceived during the time Linda Larson was Mayor of Oliver has been revived by the Airport Advisory Committee. The concept is the development of an ‘airpark’ which would see single family residences constructed with street access for vehicles and an adjacent aircraft parking site leading to a Taxi-way for individuals to park their planes.

This is not a far-fetched concept; a Web search for ‘airparks’ will bring up a lot of information most notable being that there are about 500 in the US and probably less than a dozen in Canada.

Airparks are not just for the rich and famous, many average people own planes; mechanics, long distance truck drivers and up the wage scale. The important thing is that this type of concept is another form of economic development. Just as automobile owners need service stations, so aircraft owners need places where their planes can receive federally mandated, periodic maintenance. With a plane you don’t get to put off your oil-change until next week; when the aircraft is ‘time expired’ on a maintenance procedure it has to be done right away. Thus the demand for local facilities can rise dramatically. In addition, pilots are a special and tight knit group who love to fly and encourage everyone to savor the freedom of climbing into the clouds.

When one considers the desirability of living in the South Okanagan with all of its natural attractions and a booming wine and fruit industry and the number of people who land in Oliver for breakfast each year for the flying club’s breakfast it is not hard to imagine people with planes wanting to live here.

But enough of the romanticizing and down to some practicalities; how does an idea such as this become reality? First of all the airfield has to be in a geographical location suitable for houses and small aircraft, the runway thresh-hold approaches have to be acceptable to Transport Canada and the Province has to be convinced that a residential use on an airfield is consistent with existing provincial policy. As Walt Lannon of Lannon Aviation Inc. added; “There has to be a good marketing plan to ensure salability of the new homes”.

A conversation with Oliver Councillor and Chair of the Airport Advisory Committee, Larry Schwartzenberger revealed his desire for a cautious approach while taking into consideration important factors such as encouraging commercial aviation development to continue down Airport Street on the west side of the airport where major infrastructure such as adequate water, sewer and 3 Phase Power already exists.

When questioned on the suggestion in a management report that the existing Oliver Fire Department (FD)temporary training site might be in conflict with a residential development he suggested that he would favor “using some of the money generated from such a development to create a new training site elsewhere in the community”. During the conversation he stated that “this concept is so dependent on decision outside the purview of local government that the most preliminary discussions with those who could be affected would be premature until more is known”. (Paraphrased)

The FD training site is going to be a major consideration in the decision-making process and Oliver Fire Chief Dan Skaros was unable to offer any comments at this time. Councillor Schwartzenberger is also the Town’s Liaison for the Oliver Fire Department so he will be wearing two hats and will bring the senior FD staff up to speed once there is something more tangible to discuss.