CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Corpus Christi International Airport is looking to expand its property line by 68 acres.
Airport officials said Thursday that they are working on a deal to buy these acres of farmland -- right outside the airport's fences.
It's a deal that came about organically.
Aviation Director Kevin Smith said the expansion was part of the airport's master plan, so when the land became available, the deal was too good to pass up.
“You know, we have the land,” he said. “It’s available, so we're buying it. We're using our reserve funds, so there's no city money going into it.”
The airport’s reserve fund is money left over when the airport makes record profits.
Right now, the airport plans to keep the land as farmland, but in the future -- as we learned -- the acres could be used for a solar farm.
“A lot of the aircraft are becoming electric,” he said. “We've got the electric drones showing up now, so we're going to need more and more electricity as we go forward in aviation, so a solar farm makes lots of sense."
The airport will be creating a new master plan for future developments and the public will be invited to offer their input.
That plan should be discussed sometime next month.
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