Black Hawk County supervisors approve rezoning to allow private landing strip at North Butler Road

The Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors voted 3–2 on May 26 to adopt ordinance 77-307, approving the rezoning of roughly 12.86 acres at 6410 North Butler Road from an Agricultural district to AL (agricultural-limited) to permit a private grass landing strip.

Planning staff Joseph Gman said the Planning and Zoning Commission had unanimously recommended approval and that adjacent neighbors had been contacted; a north-side neighbor raised a question about a culvert to preserve site drainage. The applicant, Nathan Ike, told the board the strip is intended for a two-seat RV-8A and estimated “a reasonable expectation for this utilization is for an average of two times per month,” adding pilots will use noise-abatement procedures and a proposed runway length of about 2,800 feet for safety. “The plane we plan to operate, a two-seater RV8A, is a 180 horsepower,” Ike said.

Neighbors who spoke said they had concerns about noise, wildlife and future development. David Aerson, who lives east of the proposed runway, said he recorded the plane overflying his property and called it louder than he expected: “It is actually pretty loud… it went over three maybe four times last night.” Property owner Jim Boer, who lives at 6410 North Butler, said the wetlands near the proposed strip have been preserved and said he does not intend to disturb them.

Supervisors discussed whether to attach conditions to the rezoning to prevent additional buildings in the runway safety area and whether future hangars would require review. County staff advised that the board can condition the AL zoning to require site-plan review or return to Planning and Zoning for additional building permits; the board added a requirement that new buildings tied to aircraft hangars trigger site-plan review.

On the final roll-call vote for adoption of ordinance 77-307, Supervisors Hall, Curtinbot and Leilen voted yes; Supervisors Schwarz and Grant voted no. The ordinance carries with the condition that any new aircraft buildings in the AL area must return to planning review. The board closed the hearing after receiving oral and written comments.

The ordinance will be recorded as adopted and staff were instructed to implement the site-plan requirement and notify interested parties of the decision.