Lyon commission approves zoning change for Dayton airbase museum

The Lyon County Commission has approved a zoning map amendment request from AADF Legacy Airbase Inc. on three parcels totaling 10.26 acres on Lakes Boulevard in Dayton for a planned operating airbase museum.

The site plan for the museum will be completed in three phases, with the first to include one hangar, taxiways, parking, a ramp area and a service road. The second and third phases will focus on constructing the other hangars, a control tower, an expanded ramp area and other buildings.

Applicants Darryl Fisher, president of AADF Legacy Airbase and who acquired the three parcels, and Harold Wickham sought the change at 88, 94 and 100 Lakes Blvd., generally located to the north of Lakes between Evans Avenue and Airpark Vista Boulevard, from industrial estates (M-E) to employment mixed use (EMU) zoning. The amendment was to comply with the existing master plan designation, according to Lyon senior planner Louis Cariola.

The parcels are subject to light industrial standards, and staff was able to determine the project falls under civic buildings for a museum that will showcase military equipment and aircraft, three hangars and a barracks for veterans as overnight, he said.

Fisher, founder and president of Carson City nonprofit Dream Flights and a local resident who lives on the opposite side of the Dayton Valley Airpark, also has proposed to provide Dream Flights at no cost to veterans. Fisher told the commission Thursday the intent of the airbase is to honor veterans with a unique gift.

“It’s an amazing thing I’ve been able to do (through Dream Flights), but Legacy Airbase evolved out of that because we saw the power of giving the gift of flight to veterans,” he said.

Fisher said that last year, Dream Flights performed its final mission with Operation September Freedom and flew 891 World War II veterans in 47 states between Aug. 1 and Sept. 30, using six airplanes. They each were flown for 20 minutes at 1,000 feet in open cockpit PT-17 Stearman biplanes that had been restored.

He continues providing flights now, saying he is scheduled to fly Pearl Harbor survivor George Coburn, 103, in San Diego on Wednesday. Dec. 7, the 81st anniversary of the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Fisher and Coburn will land in Pearl Harbor in a restored 1944 WWII-era, open-cockpit biplane.

But in building the museum, Fisher said he wants to make sure it’s not a “static display” that will be roped off to the public.

“We want to honor veterans,” he said. “We want fingerprints on our equipment.”

Proposed equipment includes WWII training aircraft such as Boeing Stearman bi-planes, an operational WWII-era Jeep and a military motorcycle with a sidecar.

“We have a lot of memorabilia that’s going to be in Dayton,” Fisher said of the museum. “It might not mean a lot now, but as time goes in history going forward, it’s going to be a big deal.”

Cariola said the Lyon County Planning Commission voted 7-0 to forward a recommendation of approval to the Board of Commissioners after Fisher and Wickham worked with the community to address concerns about drainage, noise from flights and air traffic patterns, which will occur south over Bureau of Land Management land in industrial areas.

The commissioners thanked Fisher and Wickham for not charging veterans for Dream Flights after their military service.

Commissioner Robert Jacobson, representing District 4, called it a “wonderful project.”

“I was just thinking, ‘Where’s the blue or red tape, and why aren’t they getting charged for room tax (for the barracks)?’ ” Jacobson said. “This is fantastic, thank you so much,” he said.

Fisher said donations are necessary but giving to veterans is “as pure as it possibly gets.”