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September 2, 2010
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Neighborhood taking off
Published November 15, 2009
Flying has been in the Patterson bloodline for a long time.
“My grandfather used to fly out for TVA all the time,” said Bill Patterson. “So he built his own private runway on his land. My dad and his brothers all flied. Dad’s always had a plane off and on. It’s just fun.”
That passion for the skies, combined with some keen business acumen, has Patterson and his father, Jim, developing a different type of neighborhood — an airpark.
An airpark is essentially a subdivision with an airstrip runway as a central focal point, allowing residents to live near the Walton-Oconee county border and also fly small private planes almost literally from their front porches.
“It’s a fly-in community,” Patterson said.
The proposed subdivision, dubbed Appalachee Bluff, is eventually going to include more than 50 lots — each with a 2,400-square-foot home, including 30 overlooking the runway itself — as well as hangars, a riverside view for 12 lots and, of course, an airstrip running down the center of the entire design.
“My dad bought it back in 1973, when it was just a soybean farm,” Patterson said. “They originally intended it for sailplanes, but now we’re going to have a really nice community here.”
Although Bill Patterson is handling most of the business for Appalachee Bluff, his father is the true dreamer behind the project.
“I knew there was a way to do this,” the older Patterson said.
With the project approved by the Walton County Board of Commissioners, the Pattersons now face the challenge of making their dream — currently just a wooded area with a rough airstrip cut into the fields — into a reality.
“We’re hoping to pre-sell five lots to get some activity going,” Patterson said. “We’re going to take it real slow and steady.”
Patterson added most homes would in Appalachee Bluff would go for $100,000 or less and would be modest houses rather than the overpriced McMansions that glutted the market. But he admits his timing could have been better.
“Of course, we had to get going in the worst economic times possible,” Patterson said. “But we’re ready to get moving.”
Still, some obstacles have already been overcome. The airstrip has been officially on Federal Aviation Administration charts since 1987, while local resistance to the project never materialized.
“It’s been surprisingly positive,” Patterson. “We had one nearby church that was a little worried, but we promised not to have planes take off or land during their service times, and that cleared right up. Everybody’s been pretty supportive.”
And while the completed airpark is still some time in the future, Patterson is already looking to move. He hopes to have a 5,000-sq.-ft. hangar finished by January and can already see the final shape of his father’s vision in his mind.
“Hopefully we’ll be churning dirt by April,” Patterson said. “We’re really excited about it.”
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