"Airport Land Use: Minnesota airport zoning woes multiply"

Monday, November 1, 2004

Airport zoning woes multiply 
By Dan Wascoe
The Minneapolis (MN) Star Tribune 

  
Minnesota's smaller airports may not have jumbo jets or many scheduled
flights, but some are working hard to protect or restore their runway clear
zones for safety's sake.

   . Creeping development near Willmar Municipal Airport in west-central
Minnesota helped persuade city officials to build a new airport a bit
farther from town.

   . About 65 miles north in Alexandria, two brothers who own farmland in
the local airport's safety zone wanted to build townhouses, but a local
zoning board and a judge turned them down, partly for safety reasons.

   . Bemidji-Beltrami County Airport is proposing to reestablish its safety
zones by tearing up one end of each runway and extending the other, adding
space between the runways and nearby development.

All three cities took different approaches than that approved for
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport -- one of the nation's busiest --
by Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau, who also is Minnesota's transportation
commissioner. 

Molnau approved changing MSP's safety zones to allow more development. She
agreed with a panel of local officials and residents that the economic
benefits of future development in the zone outweighed the risk of a crash.

Her decision overrode the safety concerns of the state's Office of
Aeronautics staff. She also rejected the staff's idea to allow some
buildings along the edges of the safety zone near MSP's new north-south
runway while keeping a central corridor free from obstructions.

"I'm not so sure their boss did them a favor," said Harold van Leeuwen,
director of the Bemidji airport. 

Molnau's decision could weaken the aeronautics staff's ability to enforce
its safety zones around the state, Van Leeuwen said.

He added that calculating the odds of an air crash doesn't tell you when a
crash will occur.

Van Leeuwen, a former Air Force lieutenant colonel who still flies once or
twice a week, has seen the aftermath of a bomber crashing into a trailer
park.

"What's the cost to the community?" he said. "In today's world, what do you
suppose lawsuits and insurance settlements are going to be?"

If a crash should occur, he said, "hopefully it happens on the runway and is
contained to the aircraft, but practically that's not going to happen. An
accident would be catastrophic, and that's the way you've got to look at
it."

Ray Rought, who has headed the state aeronautics office for 18 years, told a
legislative subcommittee this month that "land use around airports is
becoming an expensive and contentious issue." The goal, he said, is "to
protect people in planes and on the ground if an accident should happen."

Because about one-third of the state's airports deviate from Minnesota's
model airport zoning ordinance, the Office of Aeronautics is preparing a
guide of best practices for zoning near airports. Airports must have zoning
rules to qualify for state and federal funding.

The $200,000 guide project will study how at least 10 Minnesota airports are
dealing with nearby development. Debra Sorenson, contract manager, said it
could help bridge the gap between airport zoning and the ordinances of
surrounding communities. Ideally, she said, city ordinances would include
the airport's zoning rules.

Safety a priority

Mike Schmit, Willmar's city administrator, said several factors persuaded
the city council to replace the current airport, which is about 3 miles from
the center of town. The new airport, to open next year, will be a mile
farther away.

"Safety was a priority," he said.

Small planes using the current airport fly over nearby residential
neighborhoods and schools, he said, and building a new airport seemed
preferable to "waiting and reacting to an air-ground disaster."

Moving the airport will allow the expansion of the neighboring industrial
park by about 400 acres, he said.

It also will eliminate a navigation problem: a nearby grain elevator that
currently blocks signals used by pilots forced to rely on instruments when
landing in low-visibility conditions.

Airport Manager Steve Wright said that providing for effective instrument
landings could allow Willmar to receive scheduled air service someday.

Bruce Peterson, the city's planning and development services director, said
that although he does not anticipate a great surge of development near the
new airport, the city intends to enforce building restrictions in adjoining
farm fields.

"Zoning is paramount," Schmit said.

No townhouses

In Alexandria, the 700-acre airport is within the city limits, southwest of
the town center. Dave Benson, chairman of the city's airports commission,
said improved runways were built during World War II to make the field an
auxiliary military air station. It does not have scheduled air service.

For decades the airport was nearly surrounded by corn and soybean fields.
The airport ordinance that limits development was adopted in 1977 and a few
years later the city bought land near one runway to keep development at bay,
said City Attorney John Lervick.

More than 10 years ago, two brothers who owned land near the airport
challenged a decision by Douglas County to acquire a 66-foot highway
right-of-way across their property.

The Helgeson Brothers Partnership lost that fight, but in August 2002 the
brothers proposed building a 30-unit townhouse development in the safety
zone where no new buildings are allowed.

The airport zoning board rejected the proposal for several reasons,
including the potential loss of airport grants, the lack of proven
significant hardship to the landowners, "potential risk to the public" and
"an unreasonable risk to aviators."

The brothers appealed but last year Seventh District Judge Peter Irvine
upheld the zoning board's decision.

Shifting runways

Unlike Willmar and Alexandria, Bemidji has scheduled service from Mesaba
Airlines that accounts for one-fourth of the airport's 12,000 annual
flights, said Van Leeuwen, the airport director.

He said the city lacks money to buy land near the airport, particularly
since nearby development drove up the price. But officials want to clear
space between the airport's 6,600-foot runway and a nearby commercial area
that includes a Wal-Mart, Target and several restaurants.

Bemidji's proposal is to remove 860 feet from the runway's southeast end and
add more than 1,200 feet to the northwest, closer to farmland. The addition
would lengthen the runway to about 7,000 feet.

A similar switch on the crosswind runway would add 100 feet for a total of
5,600 feet. The city also would buy easements near both runways to prevent
future development, a cheaper option than buying land.

State officials have not approved the idea, but Van Leeuwen said it's a
compromise from his original position: "I said I want the same solution as
MSP," allowing more development in the safety zones.

He said the alternatives underscore the need for airports to ask what they
really need to do with clear zones. "We need to come to some creativity," he
said.


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