Hangar owner appeals use variance denial near Sussex Airport
Wantage. The owner of When Pigs Fly has appealed a Wantage Land Use Board decision denying a use variance to rent hangar space to non-aeronautical clients, arguing the ruling was arbitrary and conflicts with Federal Aviation Administration policy.
Wantage /
| 27 Jan 2026 | 11:10
When Pigs Fly, the company that owns hangars adjacent to Sussex Airport, is appealing a Wantage Land Use Board decision that denied the company a use variance that would have allowed it to continue renting space to non-aeronautical clients.
The appeal of the Sept. 23 decision was filed last month in state superior court by When Pigs Fly owner William Gennaro.
“We are asking the court to find that the board’s decision was arbitrary and that there were ways of granting my client’s application without doing any harm,” said Gennaro’s attorney, George Daggett. “The building is already there, and we are simply asking for a different way to use it according to what the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) considers a good use. The problem is that the hangars are not on airport property, [hence the need for a variance].”
Daggett is referring to an FAA policy that allows hangars on airport property to be used for non-aeronautical purposes if they cannot be filled by aeronautical clients. As of late last year, 40 of the 56 hangars at When Pigs Fly were being used by aeronautical clients and the rest by non-aeronautical clients.
Daggett said his client – who pays $1,500 in monthly fines for violating town zoning laws – continues to operate with non-aeronautical clients because he cannot fill all the hangars with aeronautical clients due to the condition of the airport’s runways, which he deems poor.
Airport owner Alan Antaki has said in the past that Gennaro’s unruly non-aeronautical clients damage runways and push potential clients of his away from the airport making it difficult to secure government grants to fully modernize the facility.
“Mr. Gennaro and his attorney are fumbling for a way to continue the operation of his illegitimate enterprise – which has been going on for nearly 30 years,” Antaki said in a statement. “This latest legal action by Mr. Gennaro is a desperate attempt to undermine the integrity of the township officials who are taking steps to hold him accountable for decades of flouting the town’s zoning laws.”
No court date to hear the appeal has been set and Antaki filed a motion to dismiss.
Wantage Administrator Michael Restel declined to comment on the matter, citing pending litigation.