Paulding commissioners took steps last week to make the renamed Paulding Northwest Atlanta Regional Airport an economic engine for the county, voting to expand the terminal area and build a road to serve an adjoining technology park.

The Board of Commissioners approved spending up to $62,543 for environmental permitting, up to $50,000 for environmental monitoring and up to $367,866 for Phase 1 grading and drainage design preceding about 50 acres of terminal area expansion. The monitoring required by the airport construction permit is costing the same as last year, and effects of construction on stream health and fish populations will continue six more years.

The terminal area expansion will cover about twice the size of the existing area, Airport Director Blake Swafford told commissioners Oct. 13.

He said the current area includes personal and corporate aircraft hangars and the terminal/economic development building now under construction. The expansion would suffice for a large company, perhaps an aircraft manufacturer, he said, and would allow for several buildings of about 200,000 square feet.

The existing area “couldn’t accommodate a large-scale employer,” said Swafford, adding that additional space “is very important to capabilities to recruit business to the airport.”

Environmental monitoring, permitting and grading and drainage design work done by LPA Group will be 95 percent refunded by the Federal Aviation Administration, he said.

An FAA grant will also fund 1.3 miles of the 1.8-mile Paulding County Business and Technology Park access road, with the Paulding County Industrial Building Authority (IBA) building the half mile of road within the park, recouping its investment when companies move in. The access road will serve both the expanded terminal area and the 112-acre business/technology park.

Swafford said $2.85 million in federal grants will fund almost all of the park infrastructure with required matches reimbursed when property is sold. Businesses locating in the park are expected to serve the airport and include aviation-related companies, and the access road must be built before the property is developed, Swafford said.

The board approved the park’s design consulting contract in the amount of $472,084 with Reynolds, Smith & Hill, which Paulding Transportation Director Scott Greene said had worked on the county’s comprehensive transportation plan.

“It’s a complicated project for its size because there’s federal funding involved,” Greene told commissioners. “We’ve got to get going to spend the grants.”

Greene said the road is “a key project to change the trend” of residents having to leave the county to work.

Swafford said the IBA will build roadway within the park using a bond, grant and other revenues. “It’s not an issue as far as the county is concerned,” he said, adding that “we do have a federal grant for the first model building” in the park.

The board also approved a project framework agreement with the Georgia Department of Transportation to administer about $2.9 million in federal grants associated with the projects.