ROCHELLE — The City of Rochelle has preliminary plans to put its own RV park at the Rochelle Municipal Airport in the future, City Manager Jeff Fiegenschuh said last week.

The idea came about when trying to coordinate with Chicagoland Skydiving Center, which operates at the airport and has an RV park of its own. The city wants more people to go to CSC events and visit the airport. Fiegenschuh said he wants to make sure the area is viable long-term, which the RV park would help to do. 

“I really do think the airport is a valuable asset to the community and you have the Flight Deck Bar & Grill and CSC and I think there's a lot of things we can do to continue to move the airport forward,” Fiegenschuh said. “Part of that was the RV park and if somebody wants to come out and watch the skydivers for a couple of days and CSC’s RV park is full, is there a place we could put them at the airport where they could stay and enjoy the festivities and earn some rental income for the airport?"

The city council unanimously approved an update to its airport zoning at a recent meeting that allows for special use permits for banquet halls, brew pubs, restaurants, assembly/meeting halls and public recreational facilities. 

That issue came about after city staff conversations about and budgeted money for an RV park at the airport to generate more revenue. Fiegenschuh said a permanent RV park is in the city’s five-year plan. He said the city would like to start work on the project “in the next couple of years.”

The only property tax that is assessed at the airport goes to paying debt on the community hangar that will be paid off in 2025 or 2026. Otherwise, the airport is funded primarily by lease rentals of facilities like hangars and the sale of airport fuel. 

Capital projects at the airport are funded 95 percent by state and federal dollars and five percent local match, Fiegenschuh said. 

“Obviously if we do something like [an RV park,] we want to make sure we can include that in those capital projects so we have funding coming in and it's not all on the local,” Fiegenschuh said. “We have to be on their five-year funding plan. What drives that project is making sure we can get federal and state funding and if we can, where do we fall on their timeline for funding? Because they might have ideas of other projects that are more important to fund first. So we have to get on their schedule for funding."

About a year and a half ago, the city had discussions about the cost of putting in an RV park being in the neighborhood of $80,000, Fiegenschuh said. But the city manager said that number likely would not be accurate in the future. 

Another aspect of the project could be upsizing the airport’s sewage line if it was going to see more usage. 

“If we want to see more usage on that, we're going to have to do that and it could potentially be expensive,” Fiegenschuh said. “But that hasn't been discussed in a while. The number one priority is getting on that five-year funding plan through the FAA and we'll go from there."

Fiegenschuh touted the airport’s value to the community, including the nationally-known CSC, which hosted the skydiving national championships in recent years. 

“The airport is a huge asset for us,” Fiegenschuh said. “When you think of small towns, you typically don't think of airports. I think our mayor and council and those volunteers on that airport advisory board that give us ideas, a lot of them are pilots, their priority is to keep the airport up and going and functional and they want to see it as one of our crown jewels. And I agree with that. We're blessed to have it and we need to continue to find ways to keep it sustainable and solvent. Part of that is getting more people here to visit."

An RV park would provide another recreational amenity for the community. Fiegenschuh called recreational amenities an important part of any community and said the future project could add to the list of things in town like The REC Center, the golf course, tennis courts and parks. 

“It's a quality of life issue and what people value and it's important to have those types of amenities,” Fiegenschuh said. "The airport is one key to a successful community. We want to make sure that key is working at all times."