Mansfield City Council approves five-year airport economic development plan

Mansfield City Council has put its name behind a five-year bet on the city's airport: that Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport can help deliver the tenants, training and jobs Richland County has been pursuing.

Council's unanimous Aug. 18, 2026, approval of "Cleared for Takeoff: Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport" commits the city to a development push from 2026 through 2031. The vote also aligns City Hall with the Richland Area Chamber's priority list, which puts airport development alongside site readiness and housing.

For workers, small businesses and taxpayers, the measure of success will be concrete — occupied hangars, employer-backed training and local payrolls, not simply another round of plans and grant applications.

"I think it's an important step that we need to take," Jodie A. Perry, mayor of Mansfield, said. "It sends a message the city is prioritizing development. We are committed to maintaining the airport and building it up," Perry said.

The 26-page plan was crafted by Barrett Thomas, senior economic development director for Richland Area Chamber & Economic Development, in partnership with Perry, city leaders and airport management. The city of Mansfield contracts with the Richland Area Chamber & Economic Development to provide economic development services, with Thomas serving as the contracted economic development director.

That arrangement puts the Chamber, city administration and airport leadership on the same side of the table — and gives residents a clear group to hold accountable.

The Richland Area Chamber presented its biannual development report to county commissioners in August 2026, identifying airport development, site readiness and housing as its top three priorities for the next six months. The airport plan is therefore not a stand-alone wish list. It is the public-sector piece of a larger effort to prepare land, recruit employers and house the workers those employers would need.

What council approved is a scorecard-driven framework built around six pillars: infrastructure, innovation, workforce, business attraction, asset management and defense. Each pillar includes measurable indicators that will be reviewed annually to track progress over the five-year horizon.

But the plan does not promise a set dollar amount of investment or a fixed number of jobs. Its measures are mostly actions and milestones — training programs, leases, infrastructure work and grant awards — giving residents a way to judge progress even without a topline jobs or investment pledge.

The first year is largely about positioning the airport for later growth. Its indicators include selecting a 508 Building operator model and completing the first funding applications; confirming the FAA approval pathway for 508 Building uses; submitting a formal ODOT corridor node request and completing a NAAMCE delegation visit; and adding Mansfield to the NAAMCE AAM Airport Readiness Tool.

Year One also calls for delivering route and use case analysis for the 50- to 300-mile market to the ODOT AAM Director; making interim charging capability available at the airport; completing a T-hangar legal review and condition assessment; submitting an FAA ALP Update grant application; establishing an 18-month grant calendar; and coordinating the airport development strategy with the EMH&T northwest corridor plan.

Those are meaningful early markers, but they are still preparatory. A grant application does not fill a hangar, and a planning designation does not put someone on a payroll.

The harder proof points are supposed to arrive in years two and three. The plan calls for launching the first workforce training cohort with an employer-validated curriculum; designating Mansfield as a primary node on at least one ODOT AAM corridor; and securing a letter of intent or signed lease from a target MRO, cargo or business-attraction prospect.

Other Years Two and Three indicators include completing T-hangar Phase 1 improvements while growing the number of based aircraft; having a corporate hangar expansion underway or permitted; installing or fully funding electric aviation charging infrastructure; and identifying an AAM manufacturer or supplier prospect for a Baird Parkway or Airport West site.

Those targets offer a cleaner measure of progress: Leaders can point to a tenant, a permitted expansion or funded infrastructure — or they cannot.

By years four and five, the plan calls for the workforce center to be producing credentialed technicians who enter local employment; a large commercial hangar to be under construction or occupied; and Mansfield to be recognized as a contributing node in Ohio's AAM ecosystem. It also seeks an ARFF Index C upgrade that is funded and underway, year-over-year growth in general aviation traffic and based aircraft, and defense-adjacent users established in coordination with a companion strategy.

One highlighted priority is an aviation innovation and workforce center that would produce credentialed technicians for local jobs. Under the plan, the city would act as landlord while a community college or career-technical partner would operate the 508 Building. That could give Mansfield a foothold in workforce development, but it will matter to local families only if employers value the credentials and turn them into local hires.

The plan identifies shortages of air-traffic controllers and aircraft maintenance workers as areas the airport can grow into. It cites Team NEO market research showing Airframe and Powerplant certification as the single highest-demand credential in aviation maintenance, with more than 12,500 related job postings in 2025.

For Richland County workers, that opportunity becomes real only if local training, recognized credentials and local employers are connected — rather than sending graduates elsewhere for work.

The plan also aims to position Mansfield as a primary node on at least one Ohio Department of Transportation advanced air mobility corridor. Near-term priorities include updating the airport layout plan, which could be funded through an FAA planning grant. The city will still be competing with other communities for state designation, federal support and private investment.

Mansfield Lahm enters that competition with substantial physical assets. The airport covers approximately 2,400 acres with a 9,000-foot runway, an FAA-controlled tower, a fixed-base operator and immediate access to adjoining industrial parks.

"There are a lot of unique assets about the airport, including its runway length, military ties, and location in prime industrial land," Perry said.

The airport area includes Airport West Industrial Park, adjacent to the airport and marketed for industrial use near I-71, US Route 30 and the runway. Infrastructure work already underway in the northwest corridor includes water and sewer extensions, State Route 13 access improvements and zoning updates intended to support emerging industries.

The Chamber reported one SiteOhio-certified property, Airport West, as well as three additional site submissions in Mansfield, Ontario and Shelby. Its biannual report also cited momentum in downtown projects and company expansions and a housing pipeline of about 1,000 units.

The same report described new outbound marketing capacity aimed at filling speculative buildings and targeting selected industries. The Chamber reviewed 42 requests for information, identified 23 as fits and advanced 19 to presentations.

That recruitment work has ready-made space to market near the airport. Adena Corp. completed a 160,000-square-foot speculative manufacturing and warehouse facility on 15 acres at Airport West. Airport West II is a proposed 150,000-square-foot industrial speculative building on a 15.8-acre site at 1750 Airport West Parkway, with potential expansion to 300,000 square feet.

Taxpayers are already helping make the area easier to market, but empty speculative space is potential, not progress. The economic payoff comes when employers move in and hire people.

Thomas presented a layman's version of the airport plan to City Council on July 22, 2026, walking members through the 26-page report and fielding questions. He emphasized that a vote would not occur until August so lawmakers had time to study it.

The unanimous vote showed political agreement on the direction. Implementation responsibility will now be shared among Thomas as contracted economic development director, the city administration and airport leadership.

Annual reviews of each pillar's measurable indicators will provide Richland County residents with a practical test of the city's commitment: whether officials are winning approvals and funding, landing tenants, building workforce capacity and converting Mansfield Lahm's assets into local employment.