LEONARDTOWN — Groups that want to hold a meeting, reception or party at the St. Mary’s County Regional Airport terminal will have a written set of rules to follow starting Nov. 1, including a promise of an answer within three days.
The Commissioners of St. Mary’s County voted 4-1 on Oct. 20 to adopt the revised Terminal and Pergola Usage Policy, License Agreement and Fee Schedule for the Captain Walter Francis Duke terminal. The vote came two weeks after the board pulled an earlier draft over fees and flyer approvals and sent staff back to rework it.
The policy governs the parts of the terminal the public can book: the atrium, a conference room and an outdoor pergola. The county rents the space roughly once a week on average, Department of Public Works and Transportation Director John Norris told commissioners, with more bookings in summer than winter. Atrium requests tend to be for evening events, while the conference room is booked more often during business hours.
What changed since Oct. 6
Norris said staff rewrote the document based on comments from the dais. The main changes:
- A deadline for the county. Complete applications will be reviewed within three days. The earlier draft had no response timeline.
- Fees set by elected officials. Commissioners, not staff, will set rental fees when they adopt the annual budget. The prior draft let the airport manager update fees each year with the public works director’s approval.
- No advertising pre-approval. Staff dropped the requirement that invitations, flyers and social media posts be reviewed. A narrower clause remains: ads must use the facility’s proper name, and problems can be flagged and fixed by the renter.
- A public calendar. Bookings will be posted so tenants and the public can see when events are scheduled.
- Maryland law governs. Choice-of-law language was tightened so Maryland law applies in all cases.
The dropped flyer review had been one of the sharpest objections earlier this fall. When the policy first came to a public hearing in September, and again on Oct. 6, Commissioner Eric Colvin called parts of it overly onerous for businesses and users and said fees belonged in the budget process.
The bistro next door
Much of the Oct. 20 discussion centered on the terminal’s commercial tenants, including the Bird Dog Bistro restaurant, which sent the county an email raising concerns during the public comment period.
Tenants hold county-approved leases with a quiet enjoyment provision, Norris said. Making the space easier to rent could make the terminal busier and could interfere with their business, he acknowledged, and the county will have to balance their interests against generating revenue and opening a publicly funded building to public use.
What the county cannot do, Norris said, is give the bistro an exclusive right to provide food in the terminal. The airport’s grant agreements and assurances to the Maryland Aviation Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration rule that out. The public calendar is meant to help instead, he said, letting the restaurant see who is booking the space and reach out to offer catering or adjust its menu.
Norris also cleared up a rumor that had reached at least one commissioner: a group of 10 people going to lunch at the bistro does not need to reserve tables. Diners can walk in and sit at any open table. A reservation is required only when a group brings in an outside caterer or food truck.
‘Not convinced’
Even with the revisions, the policy drew a dissent. Seconding the motion for discussion, one commissioner said the board had been hesitant about the policy throughout and called it cumbersome. He said residents near the airport had pointed to other airports with simpler, shorter rules, and asked for a six-month review of fees, flexibility and how operations are going.
A commissioner who opposed the policy said groups that once used the terminal had decided not to come back and were instead renting across the bridge in Calvert County, including at the Calvert Marine Museum, where he said renting is easy. He described the agreement as 11 pages and said he could not support it at this time.
Norris said the county’s intent was transparency. Having drafted rental agreements for the Calvert Marine Museum himself, he said those are equally cumbersome in many respects, though the museum does not allow alcohol. The goal, he said, is to activate the space while respecting tenants and to use the county’s communications staff to let the public know it is available.
Another commissioner noted that a new board will be seated within weeks of the Nov. 3 election and could revisit the policy if it isn’t working. The motion did not formally schedule a six-month review.
A terminal looking for traffic
The county-owned airport outside California has been building its non-aviation role. The terminal building was completed in spring 2000 at a cost of $3.1 million with Maryland Aviation Administration funding, according to the county. This summer, commissioners approved a lease for a youth aviation nonprofit at the airport, and the rental policy went to a public hearing set in late August.
Right after the vote, a commissioner raised a related request from the Airport Advisory Board: a stand-alone airport website, built with the county’s economic development and tourism staff, that would make information like the new rental rules easier to find than on the county’s larger site. Norris agreed it would be worthwhile.
The policy takes effect Nov. 1. Fees will be set through the county budget, and Norris said he would send commissioners a count of this year’s outside rentals.
