The WCD Story
"On a personal note, I plan to live and work in this unique community – and in doing so will have realized a life-long dream."
John E. Phillips, President of WCD
I moved to the Ottawa area in the early 90s to participate in the emerging hi-tech boom. I enjoyed professional success, but more importantly, enjoyed the quality of life here. Shortly after arrival my aviation interests were rekindled and I was exposed to the local aviation community. While working on my license I purchased a float plane and then a hanger. Soon, like many entrepreneurs, my hobby grew into a business. This all began from the Carp Airport, a training airfield built during WWII that Transport Canada had recently handed off to the region. The airport had an abundance of land, a group of devoted aviation enthusiasts and several successful on-site businesses; however its true potential went undeveloped. There was no Master Plan and no strong vision for the future. I was struck with a sense of déjà vu – I had seen this exact situation many years before.
Soon after WWII a man named McKinley Conway bought a used single-engine Cessna 170 and began using it for business travel around the USA. He quickly discovered that he had great mobility in the air but on the ground there was very little. At almost every stop he had to call and wait for ground transportation. Over a period of several years he began to imagine a new world in which he could taxi his airplane to the offices and plants he wanted to visit and park at their door.
During the early 1960s, McKinley Conway made a survey of surplus military airfields in Florida. He made aerial photos, noted access and other features. One of the sites which particularly appealed to Conway was the old Samsula airfield near my home town of Daytona Beach. He saw the potential for a total fly-in community, featuring residential, recreational and environmental areas. The city leaders liked Conway's proposal but they didn’t want to undertake it as a city project. The mayor and council members flew to Atlanta to make a proposal to Conway: "we will sell you the property at a very attractive price if you will handle the development." Conway's response was to call a group of Atlanta pilot-friends together and lay out the proposition -- they would chip in, buy the property, and then arrange with a Florida developer to implement the project. This plan met with the approval of the Daytona officials. Early in 1969 the Atlanta group signed a purchase contract. Following that, a year was spent in conducting environmental studies, obtaining FAA airspace approval, getting an overall plan approved by the zoning board. Before the process was over Conway had obtained more than 40 permits.
Finally, in July, 1970, the project could be officially launched. The Atlanta investors flew into the old airstrip where they were met by city officials for the property transfer ceremony. Fittingly, a ribbon was stretched across the airstrip and one of the investors cut it with the propeller of his Bonanza. Shortly after Spruce Creek started, my father’s surveying company was hired and I began my personal experience with fly-in communities, or ‘airparks’ as they became known. Working on the survey crews after school, I cut line, swam the Spruce Creek, and helped lay out the golf course. Even at that young age, I decided that one day I would live in a fly-in community.
In 2001 the amalgamation of 11 urban and rural municipalities created the new City of Ottawa. As part of the amalgamation the City acquired the Carp Airport. After being studied by the Economic Development Department, it was recognized the airfield had potential economic benefits, but it wasn’t the City’s job to develop it. In 2002 the City of Ottawa put out an official Request for Expressions of Interest soliciting proposals for the airport’s future. This was the watershed event I had been waiting for and, along with a hand-picked group of professionals formed West Capital Developments to respond with an Expression of Interest that put forth a unique vision for the future of the Carp Airport. In May 2003, City Council unanimously approved our submission and directed us to prepare a Business Plan for the development, operation, and ownership of the Carp Airport. By March of 2005, we had an irrevocable option to purchase and develop the Carp Airport lands into the West Capital Airpark.
Having crossed the threshold of the 21st Century, we are about to complete the first 100 years of powered flight. From the early days, Canada has been a aviation leader and today its aerospace industry comprises 400+ firms in every region of the country. Collectively this industry employs more than 80,000 people, and generates sales in excess $22 billion. In addition, there are now over 500 airparks in the US and Canada, with more being developed each year. With its potential fully realized, the West Capital Airpark will become a significant contributor to this aviation legacy, providing a stable focal point for General Aviation inside the city limits of the Nation’s Capital. It will be a place where aerospace ventures work closely with each other and federal regulators; and a world-class aviation community where people live, work, and play.