Private airstrip causing turbulence in Dunrobin, Ont.

Private airstrip causing turbulence in community Some residents in Dunrobin are concerned about the approval of a private airstrip. CTV’s Dylan Dyson reports.

A west Ottawa resident has been granted permission to proceed with a private airstrip on his property.

The Dunrobin resident received approval from Transport Canada on Sept. 29 for the aerodrome. The authority could not clarify to CTV News what the parameters for approving a private aerodrome were.

The runway is essentially a mowed strip of field cutting diagonally across the property owner's rectangular shaped lot.

Since being approved, many neighbours and nearby Dunrobin residents have raised concerns about the airstrip's installation.

"There's just no room for error here," says Gary Ganin, whose family business operates next door to the airstrip.

"If this guy has a problem landing or taking off, he has no place to go."

Ganin says he has already experienced the takeoff and landing from the neighbouring property.

"There's hydro lines in the front of the street. The little rental house that I'm standing beside, the windows rattle when he takes off."

The property owner declined to appear on camera with CTV News, but said the runway would not be paved and remain as a grass field airstrip.

The owner also said his personal aircraft would be the only plane using the aerodrome.

One road over, resident Jesse Hewitt runs an equestrian therapy farm. He says the farm's horses go crazy when planes fly low overhead.

"We've had it happen before and it resulted in horses exploding out of fences," says Hewitt, who fears it will happen again with a private airstrip not far from his stable.

"It's flying directly overhead and we know wild animals react poorly to it and our domestic animals react poorly to it as well."

A few doors down, Ken Scharf, who has lived in Dunrobin since 1989, sees no issue with the nearby runway.

"That doesn't bother me one little bit," he tells CTV News.

"Planes fly in here all the time because there's a flight school just down the road here, less than a kilometre away."

Despite the approval from Transport Canada, residents say there needs to be more regulations for airstrips, given the bureaucratic hoops home owners have to go through to build decks or sheds.

Ganin says he and others plan to keep fighting against the new private aerodrome.

"We're not going to give up," he says.