Locals Join Dignitaries for New Panama City-Bay County International Airport Groundbreaking Ceremony at West Bay

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Friday, November 2, 2007                                         Excerpts By Ed Offley, News Herald Writer

WEST BAY
    Celebrating what they called a major milestone in economic development and land conservation, officials with the Panama City-Bay County Airport on Thursday morning broke ground on the long-awaited relocation project.
    Cheered by a crowd of about 1,000 political leaders, business executives and county residents gathered at the site, Airport Authority board members led by Chairman Joe Tannehill joined Florida Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos in launching construction of the $330 million effort. Kopelousos appeared on behalf of Gov. Charlie Crist, who had to forgo the ceremony for an emergency summit meeting of governors in Washington, D.C., to discuss the ongoing drought.
    “I don’t think any day could be any bigger, brighter and better for the future of Bay County,” beamed Panama City Beach developer Mike Bennett as he watched the ceremony under a cloudless sky.
    Relocation proponents did more than applaud the end of a decade-long planning and design process that will culminate in the opening of the new Panama City-Bay County International Airport in early 2010. They also lauded the activation of the West Bay Sector Plan, a mammoth land-use agreement approved by the Bay County Commission in 2003. The plan will guide the economic development of 34,000 acres and the preservation of another 41,000 acres of St. Joe Co. land spanning the State 79, State 77 and County 388 corridor.
    As part of that effort, prolonged negotiations between St. Joe and the environmental group Audubon of Florida led to a formal partnership between the two in January, in which the environmental organization agreed to create the Audubon Center on West Bay and to become fully involved in the restoration and maintenance of the massive conservation area. Symbolizing that accord, St. Joe CEO Peter Rummell and Audubon of Florida policy director Eric Draper were among dignitaries on the stage at the event.
    “There is a great story being written today, a story of balance” between the environment and economic development, Draper said. “Such a story has never been written on the landscape as it is today.”
    Tom Morgan, president of St. Joe’s West Florida region, agreed.
    “The airport covers two huge interests: economic development … and ecotourism,” Morgan said. “Ecotourism has swept the country, and there isn’t anything like this (conservation area) in West Florida.”
    In a poignant moment of the ceremony, West Bay Elementary School fifth-grader Victoria Whitmire, 10, presented Draper with a 2-foot-long leaf pine seedling on behalf of her school.
    “Mr. Audubon, will you take this tree and protect it for us?” she asked.
Past and future
    Coming after nearly a decade of planning, debate, bureaucracy, controversy and lawsuits, the groundbreaking brought a major boost in morale to area business leaders and government officials who have seen the county’s booming real estate market falter during the last two years. State Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna, who served as co-master of ceremonies along with state Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Panama City, called the planned airport “a dynamic economic development platform” for the entire region.
    Site preparation contractor Phoenix Construction is expected to begin land-clearing and preparation immediately, with construction of the airport’s first phase taking about 30 months. The facility will include an 8,400-foot main runway and 5,000-foot crosswind runway and terminal facilities on a 1,300-acre segment of the 4,000-acre site.
    Under the West Bay Sector Plan, St. Joe will develop light industrial and business uses on several thousand acres of land immediately adjacent to the airport.
    “This airport will clearly open up some economic development opportunities that we have not had,” said Gulf Power Co. District Manager Ted Spangenberg, who is a board member of the county’s Economic Development Alliance. The airport, which is expected to attract a number of air-travel-related businesses, will benefit not just Bay County, but Washington, Holmes, Jackson and Walton counties as well, he added.
    Panama City Beach Mayor Gayle Oberst concurred.
    “This airport will be good for the economy and good for people who live here and want to fly in and out,” she said. “We’re very excited about the new jobs that this will create.”

Officials admitted their surprise over the strong public interest in the groundbreaking ceremony. Airport Director Randy Curtis said officials initially anticipated a crowd of about 100 would attend the event at an open space in the pine forest down an unpaved logging road about a mile north of County 388.
    “Instead, we received over a thousand RSVPs” over the past few days, he said.
    Officials hastily arranged to have law enforcement personnel organize parking along the shoulders of County 388 and set up an shuttle bus system to transport people to the ceremony site.