St. Mary's County to Hold Sept. 15 Public Hearing on Airport Terminal Usage Policy and Fee Structure
Why It MattersThe move shows how municipally owned general-aviation airports are moving informal, case-by-case rental arrangements onto formal license and fee structures to standardize terminal-space use.
What happened
St. Mary's County Commissioners have authorized a public hearing on September 15 to gather public input on a proposed policy that would establish formal usage guidelines, a license agreement, and a fee structure for renting space at St. Mary's County Regional Airport's terminal building and outdoor pergola. The proposed policy would not create a new use for the terminal but would formalize rules and costs around practices already in place; the terminal already offers conference rooms and leasable office space and has long been available for special events and rentals.
County officials said the goal is to provide the public and interested organizations with clearer guidelines instead of negotiating terms informally on a case-by-case basis.
The airport, identified by the FAA with the code 2W6, has operated since 1969 and is owned and operated directly by the county's Board of Commissioners. The terminal building was formally dedicated under its current name on June 6, 2006, with a Governor's Citation and a Commissioners of St. Mary's County proclamation honoring Capt. Walter Francis Duke, a World War II-era Army Air Forces pilot. The airport covers approximately 200 acres with a single 4,150-foot runway and recorded about 40,300 aircraft operations with 207 based aircraft according to the most recent available FAA data. It is included in the FAA's National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems, making it eligible for federal funding. Tenants include the U.S. Civil Air Patrol's St. Mary's Composite Squadron and Maryland State Police helicopter Trooper 7.
Industry impact & what to watch
County-owned general-aviation airports often accumulate informal rental arrangements over decades of ad hoc requests for meeting space, hangar events, or office use. Converting that into a written license agreement with a published fee schedule is a common step once demand for a facility grows past what case-by-case negotiation can handle consistently.
For a public-sector airport operator, a formal usage policy also creates a defensible basis for pricing and access decisions, reducing the risk that similar requests get different treatment depending on who asks. It can additionally support the airport's standing within FAA funding frameworks by documenting non-aeronautical revenue practices tied to the terminal.
The September 15 hearing is the next dated milestone that will determine what the actual fee structure and license terms look like, since neither was included in the meeting summary that authorized the hearing.
