Park ACV – crummy airport lot getting upgrades

PARK IT A rendering of the proposed parking lot at the California Redwood Coast Hooven Ranch Humboldt County Airport* Via Humboldt County Department of Aviation

Article used with the kind permission of the Mad River Union:

The parking lot at the California Redwood Coast-Humboldt County Airport in McKinleyville is undergoing a major face-lift that, when complete, will make parking easier, faster and virtually eliminate the need to wait in line to exit the lot.

But before parking becomes more convenient for travelers, it’s going to become less convenient, with 20 to 25 percent fewer parking spaces available during construction in the crowded lot.

The $7,036,562 project, funded by a grant from the Federal Aviation Administration, began three-and-a-half weeks ago, with Mercer-Fraser building a new parking lot north of the existing lot in an area previously used as spill0ver parking for rental cars. Later this month, major work will begin on the main lot that is surrounded by the traffic circle.

“If you are flying out this summer, it may be a little chaotic,” Cody Roggatz, Humboldt County Director of Aviation, said at the June 26 meeting of the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee. “My plea to the public is just catch a ride, just this summer.”

The entire parking lot is going to be not only reconfigured, but it’s going to be leveled out using material milled from last year’s runway improvement project. The new lot will become so flat that its slope will meet Americans with Disabilities Act slope requirements.

“We’re adding a ton of spots,” Roggatz said. “Our capacity is going to increase overall by about 40 percent.”

When the project is completed this fall, the lot will have approximately 469 parking spaces, compared to the existing 336 spaces.

Now, when people come home from a long flight, retrieve their baggage and head to the parking lot, they often find themselves waiting in line to pay their parking fees. That will end with the installation of automated booths.

When you drive in the parking lot, you’ll slide your credit car in a machine, which will also scan your license plate. When you leave, you slide your card in a machine, it reads your license plate, charges you and you are free to go. You can also speed up the process and use a machine at terminal’s baggage return area and pay before you even get to the parking lot. When you go to exit the lot, a machine will read your license plate and , being that you’ve paid, the gate will lift.

Roggatz described the new system as “much smoother, cleaner and modern.”

During construction, a portion of the existing lot will still be available for parking, There will also be a new, temporary parking area east of the rental car parking south of the terminal.

Roggatz said his department will soon be releasing a detailed press release with diagrams showing the temporary parking areas.

* The California Redwood Coast Humboldt County airport used to be the Hooven Ranch before World War II. – Ed.