Airport(s):
Valkaria Airport (X59)
Abstract:
The Office of the Chief Counsel responded to an inquiry from Mr. Bohne regarding an ordinance adopted by the Town of Grant-Valkaria, regulating aeronautical businesses and flight activities at the Valkaria Airport (Florida). The Town of Grant-Valkaria is located within the County of Brevard. Although the Airport is located within the Town of Grant-Valkaria, it is owned and operated by the County of Brevard. (p. 1).|Because the Town is not the proprietor of the Airport, its ordinance prohibiting commercial flight instruction and commercial flight schools from being based at the Airport is an impermissible regulation of aircraft noise, safety and flight operations. (pp. 2-3).|The federal government has preempted the areas of airspace use, management and efficiency, air traffic control, safety, navigational facilities, and the regulation of aircraft noise at its source. Although the courts have left open the door for municipal airport proprietors to impose noise regulations, the noise abatement responsibilities of non-proprietor local governments through their police powers are circumscribed. Non-airport proprietor, local governments are federally preempted from regulating: (a) overflight for any purpose; (b) aircraft noise and safety when it impinges on airspace management, aircraft flight and operations; and (c) aviation safety. (pp. 3-4).|The Town, as a non-proprietor, had no legal authority to use its police powers to regulate the type of aeronautical businesses that may be permitted to lease space at the Airport, or to regulate the types of flight operations that could be conducted at the Airport, including determining whether Airport users were based or transient. FAA considers flight instruction and pilot training to be a legitimate “aeronautical activity,” and the Airport owner had a duty to negotiate in good faith for the lease of available areas or spaces at the Airport for the conduct of aeronautical activities. Consequently, the non-proprietor Town may not adopt regulations that prohibit such activities from taking place at the Airport as these impermissible regulations would interfere with the proprietor-County’s ability to fulfill its federal obligations. (p. 8).|Although non-proprietor governments may not adopt regulations that prohibit types of aeronautical activities at existing Airports, they may adopt regulations mitigating the effects of noise independently of source (e.g. adopting land uses that are compatible with airport noise) or preventing the establishment of new airports. (p. 13).|Residents of the non-airport proprietor town are encouraged to immediately contact the FAA’s Regional Standards Districts Office if they believe certain aircraft are operating in an unsafe manner. (p. 3 n.2).
Index Terms:
Aeronautical use|Noise|Non-proprietor|Preemption|Proprietary powers exception|Safety