By Camas Frank
The SLO County Regional Airport has been awarded a $15.6 million grant from the Federal Aviation Administration to finally get its new terminal building project off the ground.
The money is to fund the first part of the project, 90% of which is eligible for infrastructure grants.
In their announcement, airport staffers said that an additional $8.6 million could be obtained next year through the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program. County Supervisors formally accepted the grant on Aug. 11.
The new terminal will be nearly 20 years in the making by the time it opens in 2017. Four gates are planed compared to the current one gate, and the floor plan calls for expansion to a possible six in the future.
So much time passed between the initial project conception in 2003 and the final approval of a design in 2014 that designers actually went back to the drawing board in 2010.
Consultants were hired in 2012 to help create a new, modern design following a project suspension through the “Great Recession.”
“This is a tremendous opportunity for the community,” said Kevin Bumen, County Airport director. “The new terminal is to build the necessary aviation facilities to meet current and future needs.”
The expansion will come at some costs to local budgets despite the 
heavy subsidies from the federal government.
Bumen’s staffers said the new terminal will cost the airport an additional average of $290,000 per year through 2024, in order to meet operating and debt obligations. The County loaned $3.5 million to the project, making up the remaining 10% of the $35 million overall costs.
Apart from the new terminal itself, the airport’s business managers are still seeking to recruit northbound flights to Portland, Oregon or Seattle, Wash., inland to Sacramento and east to Denver, Colo. That latter destination has been on the drawing board for some time to connect SLO with a regional hub to the East Coast.
Craig Piper, assistant director of airports told the SLO City News that the groundbreaking for the terminal is expected in Oct. 2015 or early next spring at the latest.
