Using GIS for Collaborative Land Use Compatibility Planning Near Airports (2019)

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

74 Broad governance, regulations, and financial considerations at all levels of federal, state, and local government, in combination with the specific function and economic impact of an airport, create a complex environment for land use compatibility planning. There are numerous statutory requirements to promote airport safety and efficiency. However, there can be other, sometimes contradictory, regulatory and economic development interests that drive land use around airports. In addition to federal, state, and local government agencies, there are many other stakeholders with interests in land use surrounding airports, including property owners, developers, and the public. Each stakeholder can have different and sometimes conflicting goals and missions, not to mention different terminology, processes, and/or tools that introduce scenarios where com- munication or other interactions become inadvertently confusing or garbled. It is important to have a broad understanding of the context of government organizational structures and the purpose of communities and airports as each relates to each other. The following sections describe various levels of government roles and responsibilities as they relate to an airport and the communities served by the airport, as well as explaining regulations and requirements these jurisdictions have created to ensure land use compatibility. It is important to draw these distinctions to support what is described in the primary body of this guidebook more specifically related to leveraging GIS technologies for land use compatibility collaboration among planners. Federal Government The federal government is the national governing authority of the 50 United States, with powers vested by the U.S. Constitution through three distinct branches—legislative, executive, and judicial. The powers and duties of these branches are further defined by legislative acts of Congress, including the creation of executive departments and judicial courts inferior to the Supreme Court. As part of the executive branch of U.S. government, the Department of Transportation (USDOT) FAA was created through legislation to serve as the federal agency charged with exe- cuting regulatory oversight of all aspects of civil aviation. The FAA’s responsibilities include: aviation policy related to the NAS and the NPIAS, air traffic management, aviation safety, con- struction and operation of airports, the certification of personnel and aircraft, and the protection of U.S. assets related to aviation. The FAA Office of the Associate Administrator for Airports (FAA Airports) is responsible for the administration and oversight of the AIP and PFC appropriated by the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government. FAA Airports is also responsible for planning, development, and safety and standards oversight of airport projects that contribute to the NPIAS. A P P E N D I X A Role of Government

Role of Government 75 Accordingly, FAA Airports ensures compliance with federal regulations and AIP grant assurances1 and works closely with airport sponsors—local public or private jurisdictions that own and operate airports. State and Local Government Under the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, all powers not granted to the federal government are reserved for the states and the people. All state governments are modeled after the federal government with executive, legislative, and judicial branches. In every state, the executive branch is headed by a governor, directly elected by the people, along with other executive branch leaders. All states elect legislative representatives, who consider matters brought forth by the governor or introduced by its members to create legislation that becomes state law. The legislature also approves a state’s budget and initiates tax legislation. State supreme courts lead judicial branches and hear appeals from lower-level state courts. Legislation or the state constitution determine court structures and judicial appointments or elections. Through their constitutions or laws, all states establish mechanisms by which local govern- ments are created. Most municipal systems are created because state statutes authorize citizens in a particular geographic area who need or desire local services to form a local unit of govern- ment. States also determine how much authority each type of government may exercise. The United States has one of the greatest complexity of local government laws in the world. While municipal systems among many states are similar in policy, method, and practice, there are many variations, exceptions, and differences in form and function. These differences may even exist within states. The U.S. Census Bureau designates two categories of local government: general purpose and special purpose. General Purpose Local Government Counties, municipalities, towns, and townships are general purpose local governments. The purpose of local governments is to preserve peace and order through good governance of the communities they serve. Generally, local municipality (city and town) governments are gov- erned by an elected mayor and council that make decisions based on collective beliefs, advice it receives from citizens and its city manager and/or department managers, various financial considerations, and enforcement of federal, state, and local regulations and laws. Local government achieves their goals and fulfills their functions by: planning and monitor- ing (to set the overall direction for municipalities through long-term planning), service deliv- ery (managing and delivering a range of quality services to the community), lawmaking and enforcement, policy development, representation, and advocacy (on behalf of their constituents to federal and state government statutory authorities). Organizational structures of local government vary widely, but include these general func- tions. Figure 16 shows three examples of local government organizational structure that differ from each other (New York City, NY, Athens, GA, and Berkeley, CA). Special Purpose Local Government Special purpose governing authorities are defined as local entities “authorized by state law to provide only one or limited number of designated functions, and with sufficient administrative and fiscal autonomy to qualify as separate governments”2 such as regional or MPOs, school boards or districts, or airport authority boards and commissions.

Figure 16. Examples of local government organizational structures – general.

Role of Government 77 Typically, a board of officials governs special purpose districts, but their governance struc- tures vary. While some boards may be elected by the public, the majority are appointed by the states, counties, municipalities, or townships that have joined to form the special district. Some local governments that cannot finance public improvements without increasing taxes rely on special districts because revenues are derived from more than one source. Many boards have the authority to levy property taxes, impose service charges, accept grants, share taxes with other areas, or rely on other special assessments or taxes. Because of this vari- ability, the special districts may operate in very different intergovernmental political and fiscal frameworks. Community Planning Within local government, a typical planning department works with citizens, community leaders, and economic development officials to build consensus on how a city should grow. This is generally accomplished through the coordination of a variety of land planning functions that range from creating a vision for the future of the local community and its surrounding area to reviewing all new development proposals to ensure they reflect the short- and long-term vision. A community planning department ranges in size, but generally includes planning practitioners focused on: • Community development: to coordinate affordable housing programs and associated block grants and trust funds; • Comprehensive planning: to provide vision and guidance for the long-range development of the city through a comprehensive plan with supportive studies; • Current planning: to coordinate land planning development review activities, zoning/ rezoning, conditional use permits, and preliminary site plans; and • Planning management support: to assist the various planning focus areas with data or maps, assignment of street names or building addresses, GIS mapping, development tracking, com- munication of information to the public, zoning map updates, records management, and other data requests from the mayor, city manager, city council, or the citizens they serve. Planning departments within local government can also be organized in various ways. Figure 17 shows three examples of the distinct organizational structures of planning depart- ments within the local governments of Houston, TX, Lawrence, KS, and Brunswick-Glynn County, GA. GIS data and mapping services are sometimes separated from planning or economic develop- ment departments because they are included in information systems, information management, or IT departments. An example of this organizational structure is illustrated in the lower right section of Figure 17 for Sonoma, CA. Airports In the United States, airports are generally owned and operated by the local communities they serve and are considered an asset of the public sector. Within the context of state and local government organizational structures, airports are governed and funded in several ways: gener- ally as an autonomous airport authority (with oversight by an executive director and board of commissioners) or as part of a local government department (with an airport manager reporting to a department director, or in some cases, directly to the mayor or city manager), with funding and oversight delivered from federal, state, and local grants.

Figure 17. Examples of local government organizational structures – planning.

Role of Government 79 Airports serve as a primary foundational element for a community’s transportation and economic infrastructure. Airports tie communities into travel and tourism; depending upon their size, airports are typically the largest economic generator in a local economy. Airports and related aviation and nonaviation businesses located on or near the airfield are a major source of employment, with employees and clientele that generate localized revenue (with a multiplier effect) and produce large sums of local revenue in state and local taxes. Airport or aviation governance can be located within city departments, as shown in Figure 18 for Scottsdale, AZ, Corpus Christi, TX, and Renton, WA. Each state has a responsibility to support local airports with aviation policies, funding, and regulatory oversight, especially for airports that do not have commercial service. State aviation departments and aeronautical commissions are established under the umbrella of each state’s DOT, or in a few cases as separate agencies (Figure 19). They are typically funded through state legislation, federal block grants, federal and state transportation apportionments, and/or local aviation fuel taxes. Ten states are allowed to participate in the FAA Airport’s State Block Grant Program (SBGP) and assume responsibility for administering FAA AIP grants at airports classified as “other than primary” airports: non-primary commercial service, reliever, and general avia- tion airports. Each state determines which locations will receive funds for ongoing project administration. Depending upon the role an airport serves in the community, region, state, or country, airport management and staffing range from one to 10 employees either on site or serving in a local gov- ernment department to tens of thousands of employees on site of the largest commercial service airports (Figure 20). Despite the varying levels of operational complexity, all airport managers and staff fit into the construct of local governments. While subject to local government, many of the largest commercial service airports oper- ate with a large degree of autonomy, similar to the complexities of managing and operating a small city and can function largely on cash flow, bond proceeds, non-aeronautical revenue (such as parking or concessions fees and contractual agreements on the landside and sur- rounding property) and PFCs. Smaller airports, particularly those that do not offer commercial service, function more con- gruently with local government and are largely dependent on external funding for operational expenses and modest improvements through local government outlays, aeronautical revenues (fees and charges associated with airside operational, fueling, storage, and maintenance func- tions), and federal AIP grants with local matching resources, funded and administered by FAA, including non-primary entitlements and discretionary funds (with prioritization for set- aside projects and the remaining funds distributed according to FAA’s national prioritization formula). Smaller airports typically operate with small staffs (less than 50 employees), sometimes as few as two full-time equivalent employees, as shown in the organizational structures seen in Figure 21 for airports in Billings, MT, Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, FL, and Manassas. VA.

Figure 18. Examples of local government organizational structures – aviation.

Figure 19. Examples of state government organizational structures – DOT; aviation.

82 Using GIS for Collaborative Land Use Compatibility Planning Near Airports Figure 20. Organizational structure – typical large hub airport (DFW).

Figure 21. Organizational structures – smaller airports.