WALKER, La. (AP) — Livingston Parish has contacted state and federal aviation authorities about building an airport.

"A general aviation airport is deemed highly feasible from the parish perspective," according to the study by LJC Poole LLC.

The Advocate reports (http://bit.ly/Qhie7v ) Parish President Layton Ricks has written to the state requesting inclusion of the proposed airport in the Louisiana Airport System Plan, and the parish's consultant has contacted the Federal Aviation Administration about potential runway sites south of Interstate 12, records show.

The study says the airport would require at least 200 acres, but states that 500 acres would be ideal.

The airport would accommodate small private planes and corporate jets but not large jets, Ricks said.

More than 50 planes, including five jets, are registered to owners in the parish, he said.

For a new general aviation airport to be built, state and federal guidelines require that at least 10 planes must be based there, and Ricks said owners of about three times that many planes already have indicated a willingness to base their aircraft at a Livingston airport.

Having several corporate jets in a parish is considered significant in planning a new general aviation airport, said the parish's airport consultant, Lucien "Lu" Cutrera, of T. Baker Smith LLC.

State and federal guidelines specify that new airports should be at least 20 miles or 30 minutes in driving time from existing airports.

To comply with the guidelines and a request from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, which is a facility in Livingston researching cosmic gravitational waves, the airport probably would be built somewhere south of Interstate 12 and north of La. 42, between La. 63 and La. 447, he said.

The parish is considering a 5,400-foot runway in what is roughly estimated as a $12 million project, Ricks said.

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Information from: The Advocate, http://theadvocate.com

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