INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT Easy to and through. May 13, 2019 Alexis Faust, Executive Director Aullwood Audubon 1000 Aullwood Road Dayton OH 45414 Dear Ms. Faust: Please find below my response to the email you sent out on May 7, 2019, to the Friends of Aullwood: In the last few days, as a result of an email communication from the Executive Director of Aullwood Audubon, Alexis Faust, I have received many emails about the rezoning and proposed development of Dayton International Airport property on Frederick Pike. Many of you have expressed concerns about the legacy of Marie Aull and the environmental impacts of development on the site known as Knoop Prairie. The Airport manages over 4,800 acres of property. We hear your concerns and completely understand our responsibility to the watershed, the environment, and to you, our neighbors, We take our stewardship of our property very seriously and spend countless hours and resources to protect the two watersheds the Airport is in. To give a little history on the site in question, in 1995, the City provided the funding to establish and maintain the prairie in a lease between the City of Dayton and Aullwood. In 2007, the lease expired and was not renewed based on concerns raised by the FAA Area District Office over wildlife hazards and further identified by the FAA as a non- compatible land use. Throughout the lease, the property has been available for development of uses reflected in its zoning both when in Butler Township and now in the City of Dayton. This land was acquired by the City of Dayton for the long-term development of the Airport for two purposes. The first was to protect the runway approach corridor to the main runway and the second was to address noise mitigation by preventing development that is deemed incompatible with the Airport. In early 2010 the FAA directed the Airport to dispose of lands that had been acquired for noise mitigation and use the funds for an aviation purpose. All of our recent development has complied with FAA regulations and directives and is compatible with the long-term use of the Airport. We are proud of the role we play as an economic engine for the Dayton region and southwest Ohio. The developments we are building will house world class companies and employ over 2,200 people in addition to 2,800 Airport employees. These companies will become partners in our community, funneling jobs and economic gains to the Dayton region. (Owned and Operated by the City of Dayion 3600 Terminal rive -Sute 300 - Vandala, Ohio 45377-1098 (937) 454-8200 /1-877-FLYDAY! Telephone * (837) 454-8284 Fax * wunydayton.comWe should not let the possible development on Frederick Pike take away from the leadership that Aullwood and Paul Knoop began. ‘Their pioneering project began the transformational change that has taken place on how we approach the management of our land with the inclusion of prairie grass. We just completed a multi-year study in partnership with Aullwood to evaluate turf grass, airfield grass, tall prairie grass, com crops and bean crops as wildlife attractants hazardous to aviation. The intent of this study was to support that tall prairie grass is a favorable ground cover and does not attract, wildlife hazardous to aviation. We partnered with the Department of Defense, Mississippi State University, and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to study the impacts of mono-culture switchgrass as ground cover around Airports instead of mowing. We involved Aullwood in these studies under contract to monitor wildlife impacts. The resulis of these studies may be used by the Department of Defense and the Aviation Industry to investigate the use of tall grasses on military installations and commercial airports across the country. We are a leader in the use of prairie grass as a ground cover on commercial airports and have been instrumental in getting other Airports and the FAA to consider prairie grass as an alternative to agricultural use and mowed grass on the 435 commercial Airports in the country. The Airport recently reached agreement with NorthPoint Development to put prairie grass groundcover around the new logistics and manufacturing buildings, including the retention basins. NorthPoint builds millions of square feet of buildings across the country and is intrigued by the use of prairie grass to reduce maintenance cost. This would not have happened without the partnership between Aullwood and the iport. I've attached a map of the historically farmed parcels that the Airport has converted to prairie grass and other pareels under consideration. I know this will not necessarily change anyone’s mind about the development of the 109-acre property on Frederick Pike. 1 do hope it sheds some light on how we are using the land to ereate career opportunities and vital economic growth to the region while working to continue Marie Aull and Paul Knoop’s legacies by expanding the Prairic Program both at our airport as well as potentially countless others across the nation. While we may disagree on some of our plans, we hope to continue to have a working relationship on the areas where we have made and can continue to make a lot of progress on the development and use of prairie grass, Best Regards, Terrence G. Slaybaugh Director of Aviation TGS/alb Honorable Nan Whaley, Mayor of Dayton Shelley Dickstein, Dayton City Manager