"Airport Land Use: Zoning board considers easing Minneapolis airport safety zones"

Friday, September 27, 2002

Zoning board considers easing airport safety zones
By Dan Wascoe Jr. 
The Minneapolis (MN) Star Tribune 


Should Minnesota reduce its safety restrictions near runways at
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to allow new offices, stores
and hotels on land under the flight paths?

A public hearing on the question Thursday night in Bloomington drew only
two speakers -- one on each side of the issue. Both were lawyers
representing businesses near the south end of the airport's newest
runway, which is still under construction.

The hearing was the latest step for a proposal to change restrictions on
development in the safety zones at the state's biggest airport. The
request probably will land on the desk of Minnesota's commissioner of
transportation -- a position scheduled to change hands early next month.

The Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) staff and some cities near
the airport want to shrink the more-restrictive of two state safety
zones, but at least one Minnesota aeronautics official isn't sure that's
a wise choice.

The zones, which include a variety of federal and state restrictions,
are "like shoulders on a highway," said Mike Louis, director of
planning, research and information for the Office of Aeronautics in the
Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT). It might be hard to
argue statistically that any particular stretch of highway might need
them, he said, but they are there "to prevent accidents and save lives."

The Joint Airport Zoning Board, representing the MAC and local
governments near the airport, is proposing the zone changes and could
revise its language before submitting them to the state.

"But if we have some problems with what is submitted, it's our
responsibility to send it back," Louis said.

Why change? 

Cities and agencies that back the changes say the zones' current
boundaries might be obsolete and that the odds of an accident affecting
them are slim.

Nigel Finney, a deputy executive director of the Airports Commission,
said that the types of planes using the airport have changed since the
zones were approved in 1984. And he said a consultant's study ordered by
the commission "didn't support the need for the type of restrictions
that MnDOT promulgates."

He said the commission is performing "a balancing act" between the need
for adequate safety and the desire for more development near the airport
-- especially near the south end of the new north-south runway that is
scheduled for completion in late 2004. That land is near the Mall of
America and a proposed mall expansion.

Louis said that the new runway, labeled 17-35, will be the most heavily
used of the four at the airport and that "there is good documentation
that accidents happen near airports." He added that the most vulnerable
parts of flights are takeoffs and landings -- takeoffs because planes'
fuel tanks are full and landings because they involve many pilot
decisions.

While the MAC's consultant suggested that an accident near the airport
might not occur for between 158 and 292 years, Louis said it's also
possible that a crash could happen next year.

"You have to be a little careful," he said.

The proposal will not reach the transportation commissioner until after
the current appointee, Elwyn Tinklenberg, leaves office Oct. 4. It is
not clear when a successor will be named or who it will be.

What would change 

The proposed changes would not affect the federally restricted zones,
which extend 2,500 feet from the ends of each runway and are up to 1,750
feet wide. No buildings are permitted in that area.

The state's current protection zones A and B extend from the end of the
federal zone up to 7,000 feet. Zone A places more restrictions on
construction under the flight paths.

Under the proposal, Zone A would be the same as the no-build federal
zone. Zone B would start where the federal and A zones stop and would
allow more new development while still prohibiting churches, schools,
amphitheaters and other uses that draw crowds of people.

Two buildings owned by Interstate Companies in Bloomington would lie
just outside the proposed, smaller Zone A, reducing the likelihood that
the airports commission would buy them, which the company prefers. Early
this month the company asked the Minnesota Court of Appeals to declare
that state policy behind the current zoning -- based primarily on safety
-- remains in effect -- a declaration that might make rezoning more
difficult.


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