Mathis Airport Supporters Fight to Keep Strip Open

Pilots and community members are rallying around a small airport in Forsyth County that is in danger of being shut down and turned into a neighborhood.

CBS Atlanta reports that supporters of Mathis Airport met with the county officials in Cumming on Monday to plead their case and urge the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners to reject a re-zoning request for the airport property during their Aug. 21 meeting.

The airport’s landowner, Joe Voyles, wants the airport re-zoned so he can sell the property to JEH Homes, who would then dismantle the airport and construct 48 homes on the land.

A representative for JEH told CBS Atlanta that Forsyth County has outgrown Mathis Airport, and having light aircraft flying in close proximity to homes is a dangerous situation.

Voyles has created controversy by allegedly removing headstones embedded in the runway which were in place during the 1800s. Voyles said he removed the headstones to restore and return the headstones, but this assertion is being challenged in court. JEH has said that it will not build in the area where the headstones were located.

County representatives have agreed to meet with the airport’s supporters one more time before the decisive Aug. 21 vote.

Mathis Airport was opened in 1958, and is a small airstrip that serves private planes. The airport’s sole runway is 1,800 feet long. The site itself is just over 10 acres.