Airport Plan Revealed Sept. 30
St Mary’s County designated the area an “Innovation District” and launched a Master Plan to attract research and technology business growth to the regional airport’s expanding campus. Facilities sought to incorporate into this Airport Innovation District include:
- Places to start and grow companies (incubators, accelerators, manufacturing, fabrication, assembly)
- Places to invent/innovate (labs, workshops, maker-spaces, technical support)
- Places to gather and exchange ideas
- Circulation routes for various modes (walking/biking/auto/transit)
- Places to live
- Places to eat, shop, get personal services, drink, lodging
- Anchor companies
- Places to learn
The growth of the campus of the St. Mary’s County Regional Airport expands the amenities offered in Wildewood, St. Mary’s premier live-work-play community. The Wildewood Shopping Center and its campus of business and technology employment hubs border the innovative airport campus. Wildewood’s commercial, educational, and recreational facilities are connected to a full-range of residential options in a wooded setting.
In recent years, St. Mary’s County and the state of Maryland worked to blend academic and high-tech pursuits at the regional airport, including the addition of a UAS Test Site operated by the University of Maryland on the airport campus. The Airport Innovation District incorporates the University System of Maryland at Southern Maryland, located on Airport Road, between Wildewood’s business and technology office parks and the airport terminal.
Many of these components have been coming together as S. Hunt Aero began constructing the hangars, taxiways, and the county’s ultimate runway extension that has been long anticipated in St. Mary’s County’s airport master plans.
