Green Cove Crosses a Shadowy Aviation Outfit, Faces Financial Consequences
Officials Fear That the CIA Will Devote Unlimited Resources To Bleed the City in Court
This story first appeared on Green Cove Springs on May 10, 2023.
Green Cove Springs never saw it coming. City leaders never knew they would play the role of David until one day Goliath took them to court.
Last June, this city of 10,000 people annexed 14 acres of undeveloped land and changed the zoning to allow for construction of 260 apartments. At City Council meetings, the operator of an adjacent air park objected, arguing that the proposed four-story buildings were dangerously close to the end of the runway. Plus, there would be noise incompatible with a residential area.
Still, city officials were caught by surprise when Pegasus Technologies sued to quash the rezoning with not one, but three lawsuits. The city budgeted $100,000 to pay outside lawyers, but that amount has already been exceeded—an estimated $170,000 has been billed so far. Fees could easily go into seven figures if the fight drags on, a possibility confirmed by City Attorney Jim Arnold.
The Elephant in the Courtroom
Pegasus Technologies has been linked to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.1 The agency reportedly controls Pegasus and a handful of other aviation companies at rural Southern airports whose collective lineage can be traced back to Air America, the CIA “air force” that flew covert missions in Laos during the Vietnam War.
Now city leaders are learning what it means to be viewed as an adversary by the CIA, albeit in the relatively civilized battlefield of a Florida state court.
City Councilor Ed Gaw insists that the lawsuits are “specious” and bemoans the possibility that Pegasus has a blank check to prosecute its case through pleadings and appeals.
“It’s a calculated action to delay, hoping the developers are not going to wait and will go spend their money elsewhere,” Gaw said.
Neither Gaw, nor Arnold, nor Green Cove’s hired lawyers have uttered the three-letter acronym out loud or in court pleadings, but that hasn’t stopped them from hinting as they try to leverage the CIA penchant for secrecy. The city’s lawyers have asked that Judge Don Lester compel Pegasus to disclose:
What aviation products are produced or provided in Reynolds Park?
What is the nature and number of Pegasus employees who are performing, creating or providing these products or services in Reynolds Park?
What interest does Pegasus hold in any property from which it “operates”
in Reynolds Park?
What is the nature and frequency of “flight, maintenance, avionics and…enabling technologies” occurring at Pegasus’ Reynolds Park location and how do those activities relate to: a) the airstrip; and b) the rezoned property? This inquiry would include types of aircraft using the airstrip and the frequency of use.
How does all of the foregoing relate to the proximity of the runway to the rezoned property?
The Hall Connection
The city’s co-defendants are family trusts that own the property, which fronts along Highway 17 just south of the city. Virginia Hall the most prominent name in connection with those trusts.
Hall is granddaughter of the sheriff who somehow became a millionaire while earning a modest government salary during his 36-year tenure—J.P. Hall. She is the daughter of J.P. Hall Jr., the philantropist who made a name for himself giving away a portion of the family fortune. And she has been a presence in local politics in her own right, including six years as a Green Cove city councilor.
Pegasus has been a tenant at Reynolds Industrial Park (also known as Clay Port) since 1984, using the runways of the 1,600-acre former Navy base. Pegasus’ nominal founder—a late Air America veteran named John Ford—had actually been doing work at the site as early as 1978, a couple years after Air America was shut down.
According to documents filed in court, Pegasus is the city’s largest private employer with between 150 and 250 highly paid pilots and technicians, including a cadre of elite ex-military flyers. The company recently spent $5 million for a new building on site.
In council hearings preceeding the annexation and rezoning, Pegasus surprised city officials by announcing that it was negotiating to purchase property it now rents and planning extend the runway even closer. And now its landlord, Reynolds Park itself, has joined Pegasus in suing the city. (Reynolds is owned by the family that founded Reynolds Aluminum and has deep pockets in its own right.)
Tragic Reminder
Pegasus representatives reminded city officials that the concerns about safety were not academic but had been realized by a horrible crash that happened near the opposite end of the same runway in 1998. (See 25 Years Ago, a Spy Plane Nosedived Into a Florida Houseboat.)
“We’re really here to talk about the safety of our pilots and the users of the runway, but also potential—I mean real potential harm—that could happen if, God forbid, an airplane has a problem, and it goes down in that apartment complex,” said aviation attorney Jeff Ludwig, representing Pegasus.
A variety of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft fly out of the air park, including jet aircraft. Besides safety, Pegasus is arguing that tenants at the apartment complex will be bothered by aircraft noise—often in the middle of the night—as the tempo of operations increases. The developers intend to require renters to sign disclosures acknowledging the likelihood of aviation noise, but Pegasus predicted noise would become an issue nonetheless.
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When Is an Airport Not an Airport?
The city contends that Reynolds Air Park is not an “airport” under the state’s legal definition and therefore the usual limits on nearby development do not apply. City Attorney Arnold further contends that even if Reynolds did meet the definition of airport, the proposed apartment complex would still be a permitted use for the parcel.
Pegasus counters that the city ignored a state mandate to develop zoning regulations for “airport hazards” in its jurisdiction. Pegasus lawyers wrote:
The city simply ignored Florida law (and its own Comprehensive Plan) and chose to make no inquiry whatsoever into the health, safety and welfare interests advanced by the Florida legislature…
As certainly as night follows day, the city’s failure to apply the correct law left it with a final order unsupported by competent substantial evidence. In response to the testimony offered by Pegasus and others concerning the hazards arising from the underlying project, the city entertained no evidence to the contrary. Instead, the applicant and its representatives were reduced to arguing…Reynolds Airpark is somehow not an airport. That it chose that tactic rather than address the actual evidence is revealing.
There’s more to the court case, of course—technical arguments about the differences between mixed-use and residential zones, planned unit developments, “spot zoning” and whether the Halls petitioned for annexation “expressely to evade the county’s land development regulations.”
Virginia Hall and her lawyers have questioned why Pegasus had not purchased a navigation easement limiting building heights or simply purchased the property outright. “I'm completely floored. Our property has been on the market for probably 20 years. We have never been approached by Pegasus or the Port about acquiring any piece of our property,” she said.
Cost-Benefit Question
The city is paying its lawyers from its general fund. Should the fees reach a half-million dollars, as they are likely to do, that will equal about $50 for every man, woman and child within city limits.
City Attorney Jim Arnold has been doing the job for decades. He’s never seen a case like this. Like Gaw, he suspects that Pegasus is drawing on unlimited federal funds to sue the city, while Green Cove must rely solely on city tax dollars for its defense. Think about it: Green Cove residents, who are also federal taxpayers, may be effectively underwriting both sides of the fight.
In the long run, an apartment complex would expand the city’s tax base, benefitting all. But, barring a mediated settlement, the city faces a pressing question: How much is it willing to spend so the Halls can get a payday?
The author is a career newspaper reporter and editor, who covered federal and state courts. He was former editor of New Hampshire Sunday News. Nowadays, he spends most of his time writing about issues affecting boats and boating.
This New York Times article is just one example of the coverage that Pegasus and other CIA aviation units received in connection with covert operations during the Afghan War. As I wrote previously, “The existence of Pegasus and its location are surely known to any adversary nation with a competent intelligence service. It is also an open secret among residents of Green Cove Springs, certainly anyone who has lived there very long.”