WASHINGTON (AP) — The government wants to dramatically reduce the allowable height of buildings near
hundreds of airports — a proposal that is drawing fire from real estate developers and members of
Congress who say it will reduce property values.
The Federal Aviation Administration proposal, supported by airports and airlines, is driven by
encroaching development that limits safe flight paths for planes that might lose power in an engine
during takeoff. Planes can fly with only one engine, but they have less power to climb quickly over
obstacles.
Airlines have to plan for the possibility that a plane could lose the use of an engine during takeoff
even though that doesn’t happen very often. As more buildings, cellphone towers, wind turbines and other
tall structures go up near airports, there are fewer safe flight paths available. Current regulations
effectively limit building heights based on the amount of clearance needed by planes with two operating
engines.
Airlines already must sometimes cut down on the number of passengers and the amount of cargo carried by
planes taking off from airports in Burbank and San Jose in California, and in Honolulu, Los Angeles,
Miami, Phoenix, and near Washington, D.C., among others, so they will be light enough to clear
obstructions if only one engine is available, said Chris Oswald, vice president of the Airports Council
International-North America.
The problem is exacerbated in hot weather when air is less dense and planes require more power during
takeoff. Bigger planes that carry lots of passengers and cargo on lucrative international flights are
especially affected.
Airports worry that the problem could cost airlines enough money that they’ll find some routes
unprofitable and eliminate service, Oswald said.
The FAA’s proposal would change the way the agency assesses proposals to build new structures or modify
existing structures near 388 airports to take into account the hazard that would be created to
one-engine takeoffs. For example, under the proposal a building located 10,000 feet from the end of a
runway would have a maximum allowable height of 160 feet instead of the current limit of 250 feet,
according to an analysis by the Weitzman Group, a New York real estate consulting firm. As the distance
from an airport increases, the allowable building height increases as well. The proposal could affect
buildings as far as 10 miles from an airport.
Planes taking off usually follow one of about a half-dozen possible flight paths. To limit the number of
buildings and other structures affected by the proposal, the FAA is recommending airports and local
zoning boards work together to select a single flight path for each runway that planes can use in the
event that an engine quits, said John Speckin, the FAA deputy regional administrator in charge of the
proposal. The new height limits would only apply to structures in that path, he said.
“We’re trying to create a balance of the aviation needs and the development needs in the local
community,” he said in an online briefing Wednesday.
But even with that limitation, thousands of existing and planned structures would be affected, said Peter
Bazeli, who wrote the Weitzman analysis. Existing buildings along the path would not have to be altered,
but a property owner who wanted to increase the height of a building or replace it with a taller
building might be out of luck.
“Just one flight path could cover hundreds and hundreds of acres in densely developed areas,” Bazeli
said. “You are going to be bumping up against some very valuable property rights.”
The FAA doesn’t have the authority to tell owners how high a building can be. But property owners near
airports are supposed to apply to the FAA before construction for a determination on whether a proposed
building or renovation presents a hazard to navigation. Erecting a building that the FAA says is a
hazard is akin to building in a flood plain — insurance rates go up, mortgages are harder to get and
property values decrease. Local zoning laws often don’t permit construction of buildings determined to
be an aviation hazard.
The FAA’s proposal has created “a real estate and developer firestorm,” said Ken Quinn, a former FAA
chief counsel who is representing several developers. “A single building can be worth $100 million and
more. If you are talking about lopping off whole floors, you can ruin the economic proposition and you
can destroy the viability of the building, so you are talking about easily a $1 billion in economic
impact.”
Cellphone tower owners and operators are also concerned.
“A change in the maximum allowable height of infrastructure surrounding airports … could degrade
wireless service coverage and capacity,” PCIA, a trade association for the wireless industry, said
Wednesday in a letter to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee members.
The real estate and wireless industries want the FAA proposal to be put through a formal rulemaking
process, which can take years to complete. When an agency proposes a new rule, it also has to show that
the benefits outweigh the cost to society. That makes it easier for industries to challenge the rule.
FAA officials have chosen instead to treat the proposal as a policy change, eliminating the need to meet
rulemaking requirements.
A bill recently introduced by Democratic Rep. Jim Moran, whose Northern Virginia district includes
densely populated areas around Reagan National Airport near downtown Washington, would require the FAA
to conduct a formal rulemaking. In a letter earlier this year to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx,
Moran and three other lawmakers expressed concern that the proposal would have a “detrimental effect on
the development and marketability of airports as well as hinder job creation and shrink the tax base of
local governments.”
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