Regulatory Alert: AAAE Seeks Feedback on FAA's Draft Policy on Processing Airport Land Use Changes

AAAE is distributing a survey to members to collect feedback on the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) proposed policy that outlines how the agency will process and evaluate an airport sponsor's request for a land use change on federally acquired or federally conveyed airport land.

As outlined in our September 14 Regulatory Alert, FAA's draft policy would require the agency to approve all non-aeronautical and mixed uses of land that was either acquired with federal funds or received from the federal government with specific restrictions. The purpose of the proposed policy is to detail for airports what to submit to the agency when requesting such a land use change, how FAA will evaluate the request, and how the decision will be documented.

You can find AAAE's survey on the proposed policy here. We encourage you to share the survey with your staff that is responsible for managing airport land use related issues. The survey results will enable us to better respond to FAA through comments and communicate potential impacts or concerns that may result from implementation of the policy. Our focus is on ensuring that FAA does not create any new burdensome processes or unreasonably inhibit airports from using land for non-aeronautical purposes.

FAA has set Monday, October 17, as the deadline for submitting responses. Airports are encouraged to review the proposal, notify AAAE of concerns or any other issues, and consider filing individual comments. You can submit a response to FAA through the regulatory docket here. We are asking members to provide us feedback through the survey no later than Thursday, October 13.