Withdrawing an intergovernmental agreement between the Valdosta-Lowndes County Airport Authority, the City of Valdosta and Lowndes County to use SPLOST funds for hangars was considered at Tuesday’s Valdosta City Council work session.

In its place is a request to provide approved SPLOST funding to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Airport and to approve a loan to construct airplane hangars.

Mark Barber, deputy city manager for administration, said the original intergovernmental agreement would have been a $2.2 million loan, with a pay-back over 15 years.

In SPLOST VI, the city allocated $900,000 to the airport authority. With the new agreement, the city would provide $450,000 upfront and $450,000 at the end of construction.

The county has also budgeted $900,000 to help pay for the project.

This would mean that there would be $460,000 remaining for construction, Barber said.

The loan from the city would provide up to $500,000 to finish construction with an eight-year pay-back period at a 5 percent interest rate.

Mayor John Fretti said this simplified the process.

Once the hangars are built, revenue from hangar rental will help facilitate the payback on the loan, Barber said.

“The airport belongs to the citizens so we are loaning ourselves the money,” Councilman Sonny Vickers, District 3, said.

In other news:

• An ordinance to rezone 11.53 acres from single-family residential to multi-family residential on Hickory Road and Harmon Drive was postponed until December as requested by property owner Jimmy Bennett.

The applicant is still attempting to resolve some water issues on Phase I of the apartment complex and does not want to invest in a traffic study for Phase II of the project at this time, said Anne-Marie Wolff, planning and zoning administrator.

Fretti said that as a general rule, council only provides for two postponements. A postponement was granted in October to provide the applicant time to conduct a traffic study.