warfelg said:
Yup. IIRC the height waiver gave them 24 months before groundbreaking had to occur. <...>
There are two height waiver timelines, I believe:
James City County's height waiver approval:
Commencement of Construction: Permits for the construction of foundations and/or
footings for the Attraction shall be obtained within 36 months from the date of approval
of this Height Limitation Waiver or this Height Limitation Waiver shall be void.
And FAA's:
This determination expires on 03/18/2019 unless...
<various conditions, but basically they need to start construction and file notice that they've started...but, reference their big note (capitalization is FAA's, sorry):>
NOTE: REQUEST FOR EXTENSION OF THE EFFECTIVE PERIOD OF THIS DETERMINATION MUST
BE E-FILED AT LEAST 15 DAYS PRIOR TO THE EXPIRATION DATE. AFTER RE-EVALUATION
OF CURRENT OPERATIONS IN THE AREA OF THE STRUCTURE TO DETERMINE THAT NO
SIGNIFICANT AERONAUTICAL CHANGES HAVE OCCURRED, YOUR DETERMINATION MAY BE
ELIGIBLE FOR ONE EXTENSION OF THE EFFECTIVE PERIOD.
So JCC approved on
August 8, 2017 and gave them 3 years, until
August 8, 2020, to
pull permits. FAA gave them roughly 1.5 years from
September 18, 2017, or just about a year from now, to
start construction (and does that include pulling permits, like JCC states, or actually breaking ground?). BUT, regardless, they can apply for an extension from FAA as late as 15 days before it expires on
March 18, 2019, and looks like it will be approved if nothing material has changed.
Bottom-line, they have plenty of time to pull permits and get started relative to the waivers. It seems they can pretty much sit on their hands until this time next year if they want. Just a matter of what the attraction is, how long they need, and how that backs into a 2019 or 2020 schedule (or whenever, 2019 and 2020 are our notional dates, not BGW's).
FWIW, I haven't seen any relevant permits pulled yet at the county or state level.