Fired up plane owners who lease hangars at the Santa Maria Public Airport lashed out at a proposal to hike rates 50% after years of being much lower than neighboring airfields. 

Plane owners filled the boardroom at the airport district’s office last week, prompting a decision to delay the item and revisit the issue at the May 9 meeting.

“The bottom line, guys, is the rents have got to go up,” board member Steve Brown said.  

Santa Maria airport’s hangars historically have had low rates, board member Chuck Adams said.

“All this does is bring it up to the what the current market value is,” Adams said. 

If the board adopted the higher hangar rent, Adams said, they should drop a relatively new fee for those housing non-airworthy aircraft in the hangars. Several of his colleagues agreed.

Effective July 1, 2022, the district tacked on a 20% fee for hangars with non-airworthy aircraft. That fee climbed to 30% last year and was set to rise to 40% this year.

Several board members said they would agree to remove the non-airworthiness fee if the new rates were implemented.

Rates for non-aviation activities, including for growing crops and grazing cattle on the airport’s excess land, also need to be increased, Brown added.

One board member opposed the increase.

“My opinion is this is wrong. It will not help the airport, it will hurt it,” board member David Baskett said. 

The topic of hangar rates renewed the debate about the district’s responsibility for supporting general aviation versus fiscal stewardship to the broader members making up the airport district. 

While plane owners filled the room, Brown said the board represented a larger population. 

“All we’re trying to do is be good stewards with what we have,” he said. 

For the current fiscal year, plane owners pay 26 cents per square foot to house their aircraft.

The new rates, 40 cents per square foot, would near the lowest charge at other airports in the region.

Under the Santa Maria airport’s proposal, a 2,190-square-foot corporate hangar now leased for $566 would cost $849 a month. The lease cost for an 870-square-foot T-hangar, or smaller space, would increase from $232 to $348 while a 1,040-square-foot facility would climb from $278 to $417.

“We are very far below market rate in comparison to the airports in our vicinity,” said Veroneka Reade, the district’s manager of finance and administration. 

The highest rate, 83 cents per square foot, was found in Santa Barbara. The San Luis Obispo Airport charges 45 cents per square foot to rent a hangar.

As of Jan. 1, leasing a hangar at the Lompoc Airport costs 42 cents per square foot.

While most airports across California are governed by cities or counties, Santa Maria’s is among the few operated by a special district. 

Typically, hangar rates increases are based on the Consumer Price Index increases which last year was 3.7%.

A parade of pilots spoke out against the rate hike, saying, “do the right thing.” 

“By raising the rates you’re going to put a lot of guys like me out of the T-hangar. You’re not promoting general aviation that way,” one pilot said.

Owners of planes kept at the airport support airfield businesses including those selling fuel, performance maintenance work and painting aircraft, several pilots noted. 

They also stressed that owning a plane is not a cheap hobby and most plane owners aren’t wealthy.

Others criticized the district for not communicating the proposed rent increase.

A survey showed many of those in the room had leased hangars for decades.

“Let’s just say this is a ridiculous increase,” said Niki Kozak, a hangar tenant. “It should have been put out far earlier and spread out over time.”