Imagine getting a hankering for a hamburger at a special burger joint in, say, Sedalia. Forget the hour and a half drive. Just hop into your Beechcraft Bonanza parked in your personal hangar next to your garage, roll out to the nearby runway, and get airborne in about five minutes or less. Crank your flying beast up to about 200 mph, and ta-da—you’ll be taking care of your mad burger need in about 30 minutes.
This might sound fanciful, but it could become reality for any home-and-plane owner at the proposed 159-acre Arrowhead Airpark near Belton at about 203rd Street and Prospect Avenue. Getting the project off the ground and navigating the complexities of developing it has been a bit bumpy, says developer and retired jet pilot Craig Wilcox, who purchased the land in 2022. Neighbors—and the county as a whole—are not quite on board yet.
Neighbors have raised concerns over noise pollution from planes taking off and landing. There have been several hearings on the project, and residents have said they chose to live in the rural location for peace and quiet, not to live near an airpark that’s literally in their backyard.
“I didn’t buy our house to live by an airport,” Greg Poremski told FOX4KC.Com at a Cass County Planning Board meeting in February. “That’s our major concern. Why are we putting an airport out at 200th and Prospect?” The proposed development is currently in an area zoned for agriculture.
Wilcox says neighbors’ concerns are being addressed through rules, such as no flights after midnight, no cargo traffic, no passenger traffic and no flight lessons. “It’s just people’s fear of the unknown,” Wilcox says. “We say airpark and they hear airport. We think at our full development, we might have six to seven takeoffs a day. They’re going to take off and go away. They don’t hang around and buzz the airport.”
Wilcox is hoping that future hearings will alleviate many of these fears and he will be able to proceed with the development by early summer 2025.
Wilcox’s proposal is for 94 lots, with each individual owner building their own homes and hangers. Half-acre lots will be sold for around $100,000, with houses priced at around $400,000 to $600,000. The larger lots, or estate lots, are up to two and a half acres. Those parcels will be priced at around $150,000 to $250,000, with houses expected to top $2 million or so.
“What we’re going to do is write our codes, our covenants, to ensure that the airpark always remains an airpark,” he says. “That has been the bane of airparks all across the country. As they build it, they have a bunch of pilots move in, and then over the years, either through inheritance or resales, they get less and less pilots and more and more people who just want to store boats and RVs. We have considered requiring a pilot’s license or aircraft ownership.”
The lots will be big enough that a hanger can be standalone nearby or part of the house. The proposed airpark would include a 3,000-foot lighted and paved runway. Wilcox is hoping to close on the lots by early 2026.
“We truly want to be a contributing member and a valued member of the Cass County community,” he says. “We’re planning a scholarship fund for probably two high school seniors per year where we’re going to buy them either a private pilot license or enrollment in an aviation maintenance school. That’s $15,000 each.”
