The Fillmore City Council approved the construction and operation of a helicopter maintenance and repair business at Tuesday's meeting.

The applicant, Rotorcraft Support, Inc., submitted an application to develop a private heliport for a maintenance and repair facility for helicopters t be located within the Business Park Master Plan area on property owned by an affiliate of the Applicant. Two companies are proposed to locate at the site: Rotorcraft and The Guardian.

Rotocraft is a maintenance and repair helicopter business with 58 full time employees that will relocate from Van Nuys to Fillmore. The Guardian is a fire helicopter company that is contracted to fight forest fires and has approximately 15 full time employees. The Guardian helicopters will be at fire sites 9 months out of the year. When not attending to fires, the Guardian employees will be in Fillmore training. Both of these businesses would move to the property in Phase 1.

The project is to be constructed in two (2) phases. Phase 1 involves the construction a 67,872 SF hangar, parking spaces, retaining walls, public improvements on River St. and constructing the full width of the D St. extension (from River Street to 460 feet south of River Street). Phase 2 consists of constructing a 45,066 SF hangar for the future undetermined tenant.
The businesses would like to be allowed to operate from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Saturdays with allowance to perform work on Sundays during times of emergencies.

The project site is 10.52 acres and can accommodate one landing pad with eight (8) helicopter parking areas.

The flight paths will occur along the Santa Clara River with the helicopters approaching the site from a southerly direction. The flight paths will not be over the residential areas of Fillmore. Prior to flying helicopters from the property the applicant is required to obtain approvals from the FAA, Caltrans (the Division of Aeronautics (DOA) and The Airport Land Commission.

The project site is located at the southwest corner of River St. and D St.

To avoid the appearance of large hangars, the applicant selected to locate the building along D St. rather than Rover St. In this way the project complies with the Business Park Master Plan SP-1 as it will not include long monotonous buildings.

The project is providing a 10' concrete bike path on the south side of River St. in compliance with the Business Park Master Plan's requirement for bike paths. This bike path section represents another important part of the future bike path as a link to Two Rivers Park, Santa Clara River Bike Path. This section of the path helps to bridge the connection of the Sespe Creek Bike Path to the Santa Clara River Bike Path.

A noise Study was conducted which determined that the sounds anticipated to be generated by the project are at an acceptable level per the City Zoning Ordinance. Additionally, the Planning Commission recommended that a noise monitor be placed close to the helipad.

Two Rivers Park will be protected by a buffer zone with employees and customer parking along D ST. Also, the flight path is not over the park. Additionally the project includes the construction of a portion of the bike path along River St. which will greatly enhance recreational activity in the community.