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2 seek permit to build a Ryan's
By RICHARD RAEKE, Times Staff Writer
CRYSTAL RIVER -- The owners of property adjacent to the Crystal River Airport plan to approach the County Commission on Tuesday with an appeal to approve a building permit for a Ryan's Steakhouse. Walt Talley and Rob Willis Jr. said they deserve the consideration because they didn't learn until two weeks ago that the property is in a runway protection zone for the grass airstrip. Willis and Talley had planned to sell the 3.5-acre lot to Ryan's Steakhouse, but the sale is contingent on their ability to secure a building permit, they said. The Federal Aviation Administration says that places of public assembly, such as restaurants, cannot be located within runway protection zones. The property owners question whether the FAA has jurisdiction in this case. The men claim that when they bought the land in May 2000, they were not notified that it was in a runway protection zone, although the county had filed its airport master plan with the FAA a year earlier. Likewise, they weren't notified of the protection zone issue when they subdivided the property into three lots in June 2001, Willis said. After meeting with FAA representatives last week, county officials are looking at the options for the parcel. The FAA told those attending the meeting that allowing a Ryan's Steakhouse to be built on the lot could jeopardize $450,000 in federal and state grants for the airport. The options, according to a memo by Ken Frink, the county's public works director, include buying an aviation easement, shortening the grass airstrip and thereby pulling the protection zone in closer to the airport, positioning the restaurant so that it is out of the protection zone, denying the application outright, or approving the application and jeopardizing the grant money. Tom Davis, director of the Crystal River and Inverness airports, said shortening the runway could prompt the state to close it altogether. Joanna Coutu, a planner with the county's community development division, said Frink was still working on the options and planned to put them before county commissioners in the coming weeks. If the building permit is denied, Willis said, he and Talley would sue the county. The other options won't work, he said. -- Richard Raeke can be reached at 564-3623 or rraeke@sptimes.com.
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