Suburban Airport was a public-use

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

located in

Anne Arundel County Anne Arundel County (; ), also notated as AA or A.A. County, is located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 588,261, an increase of just under 10% since 2010. Its county seat is Annapolis, whi ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, two miles (3 km) southeast of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

Laurel Laurel may refer to: Plants * Lauraceae, the laurel family * Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel People * Laurel (given name), people with the given name * Laurel (surname), people with the surname * Laurel (mus ...

. This airport was privately owned by Suburban Air Park LLC. The airport was closed in 2017.

Facilities and aircraft

Suburban Airport covers an area of which contains one paved

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

(3/21) measuring . A combination of grass, paved-pad, ramp, owner-maintained fabric hangars, and steel hangars were available for aircraft to base from. The airport hosted homebuilt experimental aircraft, and had been the primary construction site of several aircraft.

History

1960 June 1946Ercoupe-Suburban Airport Laurel MD

Suburban airport was on ground once owned by the Snowden Family. The family manor "Birmingham" was built in 1690, and sat adjacent to the runway on what is now the northbound lanes of the

Baltimore–Washington Parkway The Baltimore–Washington Parkway (also referred to as the B–W Parkway) is a highway in the U.S. state of Maryland, running southwest from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. The road begins at an interchange with U.S. Route 50 (US 50 ...

. The Snowden family cemetery sits just to the east of the runway. This historic location was the home of the first Iron production in Maryland, Patuxent Iron Works. Just to the west of the airport is a later Snowden family manor, Montpelier. Suburban Airport opened in March 1960 as a family-run airport and

fixed-base operation A fixed-base operator (FBO) is an organization granted the right by an airport to operate at the airport and provide aeronautical services such as fueling, hangaring, tie-down and parking, aircraft rental, aircraft maintenance, flight instruction, ...

. The first manager was Morgan Stern. The first aircraft flown into the field was an

Erco Ercoupe The ERCO Ercoupe is an American low-wing monoplane aircraft that was first flown in 1937. It was originally manufactured by the Engineering and Research Corporation (ERCO) shortly before World War II; several other manufacturers continued it ...

. By 1963, the operations building and maintenance hangar were complete and there were 33 aircraft based on the field. W18 Final on 21

The airport hosted meetings of the

Experimental Aircraft Association The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) is an international organization of aviation enthusiasts based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States. Since its inception, it has grown internationally with over 200,000 members and nearly 1,000 chapt ...

and aviation-oriented youth education programs such as

Young Eagles The Young Eagles is a program created by the US Experimental Aircraft Association designed to give children between the ages of 8 to 17 an opportunity to experience flight in a general aviation airplane while educating them about aviation. The pr ...

flights. The airport had been a

Piper Aircraft Piper Aircraft, Inc. is a manufacturer of general aviation aircraft, located at the Vero Beach Regional Airport in Vero Beach, Florida, United States and owned since 2009 by the Government of Brunei. Throughout much of the mid-to-late 20th centur ...

dealer. In 2001, Suburban Airport was closed for operations by the September 11 attacks. Aircraft had limited access to leave, then eventually arrivals and departures were granted under the flight rules of the

Washington Air Defense Identification Zone An air defense identification zone (ADIZ) has existed since February 10, 2003, around the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area to restrict air traffic near Washington, D.C. The ADIZ was established as a precursor to the US invasion of Iraq i ...

. Suburban airport was most recently owned by W18 LLC, an entity co-located with Bay Area Land Development and Polm Housing. The airport property is in a region affected by

Base Realignment and Closure Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) is a process by a United States federal government commission to increase United States Department of Defense efficiency by coordinating the realignment and closure of military installations following the end o ...

and gambling legislation at the nearby

Laurel Park Racecourse Laurel Park, formerly Laurel Race Course, is an American thoroughbred racetrack located just outside Laurel, Maryland which opened in 1911. The track is miles in circumference. Its name was changed to "Laurel Race Course" for several decades unt ...

. In 2004, Polm attempted to increase the zoning of the airport property from 21 allowable housing units to 641 units for a Workforce housing development called Riverwood. Polm publicly announced plans prior to the hearing to expand Suburban airport to support 300 aircraft, 100 hangars, helicopter charters, and operate a flight school if the increased zoning failed. 250 people attended the zoning hearing where the Riverwood zoning attempt did not pass. The same hearing passed zoning changes for Polm's Fieldstone development on the same road. In 2009, Polm offered to build a 715-seat privately run school if Riverwood zoning was approved. Suburban Airport Displaced Threshold

In 2010, the

Maryland Aviation Administration The Maryland Aviation Administration (MAA) is a state agency of Maryland and an airport authority under the jurisdiction of the Maryland Department of Transportation. The agency owns and operates Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marsha ...

changed the criteria for minimum approach angles and marked the airport with new displaced thresholds. The thresholds shortened 1/3 of the runway for landing operations both ways on the 2,300-foot runway. Organizations that provided aircraft for

flights had to relocate because the available runway was reduced beyond safe operating limits of their aircraft. By late 2012, the airport owner had yet to expand hangars and operations as announced in 2004, efforts to bring gambling to nearby Laurel Park had failed, BRAC-related inflow ceased in 2011, declining home prices and interest rates from the

recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

greatly reduced the need for

workforce housing Workforce housing is a term that is increasingly used by town planning, planners, government, and organizations concerned with housing policy or advocacy. It is gaining cachet with realtors, real estate developers, developers and lenders. Workforce ...

developments, and the county's school and water demands were beyond capacity from overdevelopment. Suburban Airport's owner submitted plans to build the for-profit Monarch Global Village Academy Public Contract School for troubled children, managed by

the Children's Guild The Children’s Guild is a leading Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic nonprofit organization serving children, families, and child serving organizations dedicated to transforming the way children are cared for and educated across Maryland a ...

, temporarily on the airport property in exchange for approval to build the Riverwood housing development. Anne Arundel County required the school to offset the impact of the proposed Riverwood development and overcrowding from other recently approved developments. After the county announced that it would seek school construction sites elsewhere in 2012, the project was started on a neighboring parcel once occupied by the Laurel

Moose lodge The Loyal Order of Moose is a fraternal and service organization founded in 1888 and headquartered in Mooseheart, Illinois. Moose International supports the operation of Mooseheart Child City & School, a community for children and teen ...

and sold to the Children's Guild.

References

External links

* {{US-airport-minor, W18 Defunct airports in Maryland Airports in Maryland Transportation buildings and structures in Anne Arundel County, Maryland