Bonner County advisory board moves to release seven airport lease RFPs to boost hangar supply

The Bonner County Airport Advisory Board agreed April 3 to release seven requests for proposals for airport lot leases — four at Priest River and three at Sandpoint — as the county seeks to expand hangar availability for local pilots and prospective commercial operators.

Board members and staff debated whether to release all 11 available leasable lots at once or phase the RFPs to avoid overloading the advisory board’s review process. Dave (first name only in transcript), the county staff lead on airport leasing, proposed issuing two or three RFPs per meeting but said staff could release more if interest warranted. “If we release all the RFPs at once…that’s going to be a hell of a lot of time that we’re going to have to spend at that meeting,” he said.

After discussion about local demand, taxi‑lane construction obligations for some Sandpoint lots, and a potential aerial firefighting operator that could take multiple adjacent lots, the board settled on releasing seven lots in the initial round while delaying lot 12 because survey/legal‑description work was incomplete. Gavin Gilchrist said phasing releases would “keep the flow going and we’re not just bogged down in the meetings.”

Staff told the board there are 11 leasable lots total (six at Sandpoint, five at Priest River) and that some lots will require developers to install taxi lanes or pavement that the FAA will not fund until a later scheduled project year. The county’s plan is to issue the RFPs within about two weeks and allow the standard 60‑day response period, then use quarterly advisory‑board meetings to review proposals and make recommendations to the commissioners.

Board members emphasized prioritizing small hangar lots to meet demand from local owners of single‑engine aircraft. One participant noted that releasing the three small‑hangar lots at Sandpoint together with four small Priest River lots could yield “24 hangar spaces” for local pilots if developers build to capacity, though staff cautioned that actual construction depends on market response.

Staff also said the county can decline single responses that don’t meet market value and reissue an RFP. “If there’s only one response for each one, I would recommend resubmitting them for proposals,” one board member said.

The decision to release the seven RFPs was conveyed as consensus during the meeting; staff will return with more details, schedule updates, and documentation at the board’s next meeting.

The meeting included one formal vote earlier to adopt the previous meeting minutes; the RFP‑release plan was advanced by board consensus and will be implemented administratively pending final survey work on lot 12.