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It
should be noted that many of the developers around Washington Dulles
see the airport as their economic engine and go well beyond the
guidelines in their efforts to ensure that their projects are compatible
with airport operations.
The Task Force
works with local governments to discourage the development of housing
and other incompatible land uses in areas likely to be affected
by flight operations from Washington Dulles and National Airports.
To date, Loudoun and Fairfax Counties have sustained compatible
land uses around Washington Dulles to a much higher degree than
has been achieved by other jurisdictions around the nation's major
airports.
Sustaining compatible uses as the land develops around an airport
is an obvious need for society, but one which is difficult to achieve
in practice. For a brief essay on airports and land use
click
here. It was written by the late Admiral Donald D. Engen, originally
as Chair of the Task Force Noise and Land Use Committee, and was
later published as an editorial in the National Air and Space Museum's
Air and Space Magazine.
These factors complicate the issue:
- The
federal guidelines are inadequate, particularly for an airport
buffered by undeveloped land. At the insistence of the Office
of Management and Budget many years ago, the FAA's guidelines
are geared more to avoiding federal liability for the "taking"
of land, than to the prevention of future noise problems. When
Congress mandated the retirement of older, noisier "Stage 2" aircraft
by January 1, 2000, the unwitting effect was to force noise contours
closer to airports, thus encouraging some housing developers to
pressure jurisdictions to allow housing closer to an airport or
face a lawsuit for "taking" the land.
- The
rights of a land owner are sacrosanct and it is extremely difficult
for a jurisdiction to deny zoning for housing if:
- The
land is outside the federal guidelines;
- Neither
the airport nor the jurisdiction is able to buy the land;
- There
is no vocal opposition.
In
Fairfax County, undeveloped land close to Dulles clearly is reserved
for commercial purposes in the County's plan. When land owners seek
to rezone such commercial property for residential use, there usually
are firm grounds for opposition. In Loudoun County there is an abundance
of undeveloped land in areas of potential noise impact. Pressured
by the Task Force in 1990, and guided by the Metropolitan Washington
Airports Authority, Loudoun County came up with guidelines to limit
or control housing in areas which federal guidelines say are acceptable,
but which experience at other airports shows will cause problems.
The Loudoun problems were acute in the early 1990s as out of state
banks, which had become the owners of commercial land when borrowers
defaulted, sought to rezone the land for housing and a quick sale.
The Task Force, with expert witness provided by Lt. General Thomas
H. Miller, USMC (ret.), the late Vice Admiral Donald D. Engen -
a former FAA Administrator - air line pilots and retired BAE Systems
experts, was able to blunt the worst of the past problems.
Current
WATF Noise and Land Use Committee:
Lt. General Thomas H. Miller, USMC (ret.)
Bernard D. Brown, Retired Aeronautical Engineer
Mike Osmers, Airline Pilots Association
Jeff Frank, Patton Harris Rust & Associates
Leo Schefer, WATF
Anita Kayser, WATF
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