Residents of Fickle Fen Road and the Peach Point neighborhood showed up in force at Tuesday night’s Mathews Planning Commission meeting to protest a proposal for a private landing strip adjacent to their communities.
After a public hearing, the planning commission tabled the matter until next month, pending a request for opinions from local emergency services agencies.
Port Haywood resident Joe Perdue applied for a conditional use permit to install a 1,500-foot grass field runway, which is an aviation facility, on a 29.2-acre parcel currently owned by Mark and Elaine Sopko at the corner of Fickle Fen Road and John Clayton Memorial Highway. According to the application for a permit, the runway would be used “for the occasional takeoff and landing of the applicant’s home-built light sport single engine aircraft.”
Perdue has an existing landing strip on property just 1,900 feet away from Fickle Fen Road, on property that is being used as a wetlands mitigation bank. He said his current run...