The Liberty County Development Authority plans to expand MidCoast Regional Airport and has done advance site preparation at Tradeport West to attract industry and manufacturers.
The LCDA also heard study results aimed at shifting some of the property tax burden off local homeowners, is catching up on several years of financial audits left undone by previous staff, and promises a public meeting in early June on the proposed Tradeport East water reclamation facility.
Brown: At airport, expect hangars, construction, retrofitting
LCDA CEO Brynn Grant said “an opportunity to expand” prompted the board to ask former Liberty County Administrator Joey Brown “to work with us to make sure we’re meeting all the timelines that are required to expand opportunity at MidCoast Regional Airport.”
Brown said the airport has an opportunity to build more hangar space to meet a waiting list, as well as respond to several inquiries from businesses “that need and want to be on a runway” but require a timeline.
“It’s not like running a simple [General Aviation] airport that is owned by a county,” he said, “because of all the partnership and all the coordination that has to happen, both with the military, Fort Stewart, and the [U.S. Army] Corps of Engineers in Savannah.”
That requires five-year planning windows with various partners and the Federal Aviation Administration, Brown said, adding that the clock is ticking on several environmental studies done over the past two years.
Noting the wildfires a few counties away, Brown added, “The airport has always been a readiness project, too, to be able to house GDOT, FAA, any of those agencies we need to come in a time of disaster – we’re positioned for that.”
Federal funding to upgrade runway lighting has been a top Pentagon priority for 2027, LCDA Chairman State Rep. Al Williams said, but “because of some lack of action by Congress,” that’s now uncertain.
“We will be back in Washington in June, back at the Pentagon,” he said. “We desperately need that lighting done out there.”
Brown agreed, noting GDOT’s Aviation Division is willing to help but the “meshing of contracts” between multiple agencies poses a challenge.
One advantage, he said, is that the military provides and operates the air traffic control tower and 24/7 fire support, “which is extremely rare for regional airports of our size.”
The LCDA board approved a one-year contract for Brown to manage airport upgrades.
Brown told The Current the proposed expansion “will provide room for additional aircraft storage and maintenance including aviation associated construction and retrofitting facilities.” He said the work would attract aeronautics and defense industries down the road.
Three LCDA board members comprise MCRA’s board: Williams, Liberty County Commission Chair Donald Lovette, and Hinesville Mayor Karl Riles, and Fort Stewart’s garrison commander, Col. Gabe Weaver.
The LCDA also recognized airport manager Charlie Martin, who has retired after 19 years.
Tradeport West wins state ‘shovel-ready’ status
The Georgia Department of Economic Development has granted special “shovel-ready” status to Tradeport West in Midway, making it one of about 70 such sites statewide. As a Georgia Ready for Accelerated Development (GRAD) Select site, Tradeport West has done advance due diligence to help developers start projects more quickly.
The department notes Tradeport West has about 1,224 undeveloped, partially cleared acres less than five miles from I-95, one mile south of U.S. 84 and two miles south of SNF’s Riceboro plant, with Riceboro Southern Railway running along its east side to the plant and the old Interstate Paper site.
In the next year, the site will add 7,000 feet of access road, utility extensions, and additional site prep across 170 acres, Williams said later in an LCDA press release.
Lovette noted in the same release that Tradeport West, which sits between the Ports of Savannah and Brunswick and boasts a “strong workforce pipeline” from Fort Stewart, “has already attracted strong interest from large-scale manufacturing prospects.”
The closest shovel-ready sites are Belfast Commerce Park in Bryan County and Tidewaters Industrial Complex in McIntosh County, according to the state’s site selector map.
Study: A perfect storm affects Liberty housing costs
To understand why Liberty County homeowners pay relatively high property taxes, the LCDA Board asked Georgia Tech to do a study. Project Manager Reba Adams compared Liberty County to neighboring counties and similarly-situated military counties.
Some key findings:
- Like many Georgia military communities, Liberty County’s median age is younger, at 28.7 versus 37.6 statewide. Younger troops earn less – unlike older officers at Kings Bay, for example – which is the norm for some military communities studied, Adams said.
- Liberty County’s $59,000 median household income is lower than the $79,000 of neighboring counties, which means lower median property values. Housing is still hard to afford for many lower-income residents.
- For each dollar of residential property tax, county services cost $1.20. But for each dollar of commercial property tax, the county only spends 58 cents to provide services. The difference, Adams said, is that homeowners pay school taxes. (Many larger commercial properties, like warehouses, benefit from special incentives and tax breaks.)
- Liberty County has fewer taxable homes than similar counties because many disabled veterans live here. Veterans who were 100% disabled by a service-related injury pay no city, state, county, or school taxes on the first $126,526 of their homes’ appraised value, and the break also extends to their unremarried surviving spouse and minor children.
- That combination of lower property values and more exemptions means a higher residential millage rate.
Overall, the study found, Liberty County needs to upgrade its infrastructure if it hopes to bring in more automotive and EV suppliers, aerospace companies, and add more mixed-use developments, especially where Military Zone Tax Credit Incentives apply.
Bringing audits up to date
Kirk Arich, a CPA at Mauldin and Jenkins, reported the LCDA’s fiscal year 2022 audit was clean. Arich has been working with Grant and LCDA Director of Finance, Compliance, and Administration Beth Hancock to bring the authority’s audits up to date; previous staff had not filed audits since 2020.
Some problems he noted in the 2022 audit included utility billing, overlapping duties, and reconciliations of payables, receivables and bank statements.
Arich said 2023’s audit would be done in a few months, with all outstanding audits done by year’s end: “You all have a great management team in place right now that is taking steps to eliminate all of these things.”
Former LCDA chief operating officer Carmen Cole, who resigned in January and was indicted by a grand jury over her alleged misuse of LCDA funds for personal expenses, is free on bond pending trial. Cole pleaded not guilty March 4.
Water reclamation plant update
Grant said a specific date for the public meeting on how the proposed water reclamation plant will affect the environment, probably in the second week of June, would be announced later this week.
Grant pointed citizens to the authority’s webpage on the project for more details, including a new detailed FAQ addressing specific questions submitted to the LCDA.
A similar plant proposed about 20 years ago met stiff opposition. But the LCDA says technology has improved and that the county needs the plant to accommodate new businesses and homes.
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