State weighs 19-year rent-free FAA lease at Hooper Bay Airport

The Federal Aviation Administration could use state land at Hooper Bay Airport rent-free for 19 years to install and maintain navigation, communication and weather aids. The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is deciding whether to sign the lease.

The comment period has already closed. Written comments were due at 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 4, and the department says its decision will go only to people who submitted a written comment or objection. Annual rent is set at zero, and state law lets the department grant the lease without competitive bidding.

A Michigan state airport lease guidance document summarizes FAA policy as opposing no-rent or very low-rent leases on publicly owned, federally obligated airport land. No determination applying that policy to the Hooper Bay proposal has been cited. Alaska policy, for its part, lets eligible local or tribal governments put public-use passenger shelters on airport lease lots rent-free if they meet state requirements. No-rent arrangements are not unknown at rural airports. No direct perspective from Hooper Bay's local or tribal government was obtained.

Use of the land is limited to aviation purposes. That covers FAA equipment supporting air traffic control, along with rights-of-way and utility lines. The state-owned airport sits about a nautical mile southwest of the business district in the Kusilvak Census Area.

Similar no-cost FAA arrangements have been proposed at other rural Alaska airports, including Chefornak, Allakaket, Kobuk, Beaver and Pilot Station.