A little let down today.. Kittie Hill airport definitely gone.

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supernovae

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supernovae
So there is this grass strip called "Kittie Hill" just 10 minutes north of my house that I've been following for a while. It has 40+ hangers and had 80+ aircraft there at one point, but its end is near. The owner, is selling and it looks like the buyers have a contract to settle on Q4 2013 and the news is they plan to wipe the place out and build way over priced homes..

Some owners have seen the writing on the wall for a bit and already moved, today i drove through and saw some people even dismantling their hangers to move them elsewhere.

It's a bit of a letdown for me since its a beautiful airport that just needed a little TLC, but obviously the owner wanted to cash out on some massive funding (4.5 million for 155acres) and that is that. I was initially sort of seeing some positive light at the end of the tunnel when news leaked that the contracted buyers were having some difficulties, but that only slowed things down - it didn't fizzle out completely.

Anywhoo.. i was working on possible ways to buy the land, lease back the built hangers and work on adding more t-hangers and trying to re-vitalize the property but word is, no offers are being accepted, apparently contract is pending leander approval for some utilities and thats about it.

So its time for all to say goodby to kittie hill airport.

http://binged.it/14AdzVi

With all that being said, anyone have a few acres in north austin they're willing to sell/lease to allow some people to re-locate? if it was within 10-20 miles (and still allowing buildings to be built.. so no go on Georgetown airport) then some of these people could pickup and move, that would be fantastic.. otherwise if you get much further out it becomes cheaper to abandon there buildings and watch them get raised and fly out never to return.

also, i've learned that parmer has a HUGE development plan north of 1431 so not only will all that beautiful hill country land dissappear the ever popular cycling road looks to be doomed within a 2-3 years to excessive commercial development, new overpasses and a new schlitterbahn (potentially) being built nearby..

double suck heh

btw, i do love Georgetown airport, but man, they have a huge waiting list for hangers and to be honest, i can see them going through struggles to as the development around there is astronomical and its only a matter of time before the noise abatement and hate towards the airport builds up..
 
When we were there in 99 the owners were talking about making it a residential airpark. but the county was fighting them about permitting.

really too bad.
 
Sad. A lot of residential air parks have closed also. Reminds me of the closing of blue Ash Airport.
 
Tom-D said:
When we were there in 99 the owners were talking about making it a residential airpark. but the county was fighting them about permitting.

really too bad.
Click to expand...

I wish it could be a residential air park. We have the nice one just down the road at Brushy creek - Breakaway, but they want you to build mcmansions and the going rate for house there is 650k+.. its no wonder the owner to pilot ratio isn't that strong. Is there such thing as an airpark with say a 3 bedroom 1700 sq foot home?

I could definitely see the county struggling with the idea in 99, parmer was small and neighborhood supporting utilities were probably pretty far away.. I think the problem the current buyers face are how to handle a neighborhood entrance onto parmer with no crossway at the current entrace and the fact southbound traffic needs to accelerate and merge up hill.. but it seems they're probably buying out everyone, including the RV storage and house next door with the pond out front.

i guess 36k an acre would cause anyone to sell out, especially if they bought it 20+ years ago for 2k an acre or less..
 
Seems not many cities are friendly to aviation anymore..

I'm seriously looking at some other land to do a grass strip and maybe a club to help maintain it. The glider fields in Texas are doing something right, i may try and copy some of their successes.
 
Isn't there an airport in Liberty Hill? I flew over it a while ago, but couldn't tell you anything else about it.

-Dan
 
dweyant said:
Isn't there an airport in Liberty Hill? I flew over it a while ago, but couldn't tell you anything else about it.

-Dan
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I believe everything in/around liberty hill is private.

Lakeway is pretty nice, over by the lake and has some great fuel prices, but not much room to grow, i'm not sure they can add any hangers/tied downs. Same goes for Georgetown, the airport is maxed out and prices are astronomical for private owners for anything but a tiedown (and the waiting list seems to be years for a hanger.. i wish they could develop another row or someone could lease out some of the huge hangers sitting empty to private owners).

At least home prices in Georgetown are still down to earth, but that would make for a longer commute to work and if the development plans for parmer come to fruition the faster back-roads to work will soon be doomed much quicker than i had anticipated. (35 to 29 to parmer up to where i work)
 
supernovae said:
Seems not many cities are friendly to aviation anymore..

I'm seriously looking at some other land to do a grass strip and maybe a club to help maintain it. The glider fields in Texas are doing something right, i may try and copy some of their successes.
Click to expand...
If you find something like this, I'll do what I can to help make it a success...

Ryan
 
I'm in touch with a couple of the soaring clubs, asking about details in their apparent success/affordability. Starting to research other property hopefully within an hours drive of Austin - looking around 183 as much as possible.

Ryan, is there an area that would make the most sense for what you are looking at? I'm talking to a few owners/pilots from Kittie hill to see what they're interest in but i have a feeling most of those people are hanging up flying once they get the official notice to vacate...
 
Be Proactive

Justa comment:
For those airparks that are in operation but in unfriendly territory one trick that has worked is for the owners to have the strip quietly surveyed and then changed in the County taxrolls as an airport/airstrip.
Best done while things are still quiet and no public hoo haa going on.
When it has quietly been on the tax rolls (and the taxes paid) for a few years, then when the developer comes in and promises the local politicians a windfall under the table they run into legal problems when they try to claim the airport is non conforming and shut it down. Judges tend to get grumpy when it is pointed out that they had no problem accepting the tax monies from an airport.
 
How many acres do you think you would need? What length runway with over runs do you want to end up with?
 
Got your PM, i'll try and catchup with you here soon. I've got a busy weekend helping out my daughters camp so i'll be in and out.

To answer your question though, with the prevailing windos being 170-190, i'd say any plot of land that is mostly north/south for a runway would be best. With the texas heat & native grasses, 2500 feet at least and the longer the better so there is room to not upset too many neighbors :)
 
I was looking around on the map the other day and it shows an airport in the area of Crystal Falls and 183A. I tried to drive to it but couldn't find anything. Google maps shows something that could be an airstrip northwest of the intersection.
 
I landed at this airport on my grass strip tour in 2010. Stayed the night with friends. What a shame it's closed. :(

Photos of my visit to Kitty Hill in this thread. And another post with photos.

I wonder where John relocated?

I hope to fly back down to visit Jason and Morgan again sometime. They bought property adjacent to a private paved airport near Liberty Hill (maybe?) and Jason said I could land there. I'll have to see if I can find the identifier.
 
I stopped by Kitty Hill last Sunday, and while one hangar was in the process of being taken down, there was a lot of non-activity as well. I know four aircraft owners there and haven't heard of any of them relocating just yet. If it wasn't for my knowing of the imminent closure, I'd have based the Taylorcraft there while I had it. If and when I get the next bird, I'm going to go drop in on a few places that I've been finding and see what their owners are like. Could be exciting I'm thinking.

Ryan
 
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Here is that strip.
 

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bigred177 said:
I was looking around on the map the other day and it shows an airport in the area of Crystal Falls and 183A. I tried to drive to it but couldn't find anything. Google maps shows something that could be an airstrip northwest of the intersection.
Click to expand...

Pegasus was a crop duster strip, I drive by there fairly often. It's been at least five years since I've seen any sign of aviation there, and as you can see they are putting houses on it now.
 
I'll believe the pilot population is declining when the wait times for hangars at airports such as Georgetown go from "years" to "days".

Apparently people are paying a lot of jack to hangar birds that never fly, if the lower flight hours figure published each year is realistic.

:confused:
 
We have several new hangars at Spicewood Airport 88R and there is room to rent. We even have a small grass strip here. Let me know if I can help out to relocate anyone.
 
oh oh oh I get to do it!

Welcome to PoA SkyboundDana
 
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