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This airport doesn't fly

St. Joe Co., whose Florida land holdings are bigger than Rhode Island, wants taxpayers to build a new Panama City airport in the middle of nowhere. Price tag: $300-million. Guess who owns the undeveloped land around the proposed airport site. St. Joe, of course, and kowtowing officials can't cave fast enough.

The Federal Aviation Administration just approved a plan to move the airport to the new site more than 20 miles outside the city. The decision wasn't based on need. The city has an adequate airport where traffic has declined by half over the past five years. The airport has only a dozen daily commercial flights. Bay County voters don't want a new airport, either. They soundly rejected the plan in a nonbinding referendum.

The new airport also would be an environmental disaster, filling nearly 2,000 acres of wetlands and leading to the destruction of 7,000 more acres for nearby development. All of this would threaten the beautiful woods, bay and beaches cherished by residents and outsiders flying into the area.

But this is Florida, where St. Joe is no common Joe. "The company gave more than half a million dollars to the state Republican Party over the past eight years, and they control the statehouse," said Linda Young, director of the Clean Water Network of Florida, one of a dozen organizations that oppose the plan.

The timing is convenient for St. Joe. Its residential developments in the Panhandle are struggling because of the recent downturn in real estate. The company announced it would lay off 10 percent of its employees. And resales of speculative purchases in its developments are flooding the housing market, including nearly a third of the properties in its upscale WaterColor community.

But why wait for the next market cycle when you have near-biblical powers? With an enormous new airport, St. Joe can turn wilderness into prime real estate and send taxpayers the bill.

[Last modified September 23, 2006, 01:11:54]