Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
A tentative plan is set for Sept. 6 for the next meeting between representatives from the county, the City of Pullman and Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport on the question of how to align land-use rules for the expanding facility.
A meeting June 12 in Pullman began the airport overlay safety zone discussion.
The airport is now part of a $119 million runway realignment and lengthening project.
Pullman Mayor Glenn Johnson, County Commissioner Art Swannack, Moscow City Attorney Rod Hall, representatives from Whitman County Public Works and others attended the June 12 session, held at Pullman City Hall.
The goal is to work on common language in city and county code for areas in the path of planes – and the noise they create.
The zoning rules affect land-use applications near the airport. Any nearby buildings need also to be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.
“I think we’re all on the same page,” said Swannack. “Let’s protect the airport. ... We want to maximize the opportunity but protect the airport.”
Guidelines
Rules set by the FAA already prevent certain construction within a two-mile radius of an airport, but this is mainly a land-use issue.
“What Pullman and the airport is interested in preventing is residential development,” said Alan Thomson, Whitman County planner.
Besides the safety concern, aircraft noise is another potential conflict for residential.
The current runway realignment has led to the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport buying land adjacent to it in the past two years for runway protection zones.
As of now, the City of Pullman has reviewed its overlay zoning and now the question is, does the county need to?
“Maybe the airport and Pullman have a perception that our code is not tight enough,” Thomson said.
As is being discussed, construction of a future house within the two-mile radius that would be allowed – following height requirements – could be subject to fine-tuning, which for example might be a “hold harmless” agreement, that is not required now by county code.
The agreement would essentially say that a homeowner was duly warned about building near the airport.
A hold-harmless agreement might also include clauses for what could happen in the future if air traffic changes – such as a 5 a.m. flight going over a house that never did before.
“The easiest way to be honest about it is don’t have the houses there in the first place,” said Tony Bean, airport administrator. “On the county side of things, they don’t have a lot of that language yet.”
The Whitman County land by the airport is primarily zoned as agricultural, with some light industrial district.
Noise
Land-use laws are what helps an airport avoid future costs to a taxpayer-funded entity, some of which can be because of noise.
The FAA uses a certain equation for each airport regarding night and day decibel levels to determine a “noise contour.” If an airport goes over it, legal grounds are established for homeowners to be compensated – going as far as requiring airports to buy houses people move out of.
Right now the airport’s noise contour is not a concern.
“Our estimate level now doesn’t leave the airport property,” Bean said.
In addition, if noise violations are made, the FAA may require an airport to cut noise by reducing flights or otherwise.
“That costs taxpayer money,” Bean said. “We want the city and county to come together and make sure we have compatible land-use around the airport to allow free and consistent operation of the airport. The land-use around the airport are not governed, and they should be.”
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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