Coordinating airport land planning

Regulatory and management arrangements for planning around airports are addressed through a range of commonwealth, state and territory legislative and regulatory provisions. Effective land use planning is important in minimising incompatible activities which can occur in the vicinity of airports.

Airports are much more than their physical footprints as active airspace surround all airports. These must be protected in order to allow aircraft not only to takeoff and land, but also exist to create safety zones, allowing pilots room for movement should it be required. Inappropriate land use surrounding airports doesn’t only negatively influence safety, but threatens the effectiveness of an airport. For instance if a structure is approved which intrudes into flight surfaces, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority may be required to enforce the regulations to avoid having the effect of limiting flight operations.

Inappropriate land use can also give rise to a number of unwanted implications such as the risks of wildlife strikes as well as other unwanted phenomena in the courseof a flightpath.

Of these, noise complaints are a particular concern. With the support of states, airports are able to manage most other land management issues, but noise pollution differs in that it often attracts political pressure.

Noise complaints holds a particular threat in that residents can have a direct impact on the ability of airports to gather the capital required to finance common-good projects.

A number of initiatives have been launched to address this concern. These initiatives include those from industry and government. To support this cause the Australian Airports Association (AAA) has brought experts in this field together to resolve the underlying issues.

The effects of inappropriate land use, outdated planning regimes and red tape is ultimately not felt by the airports alone. Operational restrictions on airports impact trade, industry, tourism and freight just as much as airports.

The Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development refers to the topic on its website as – “In the interest of safety and public amenity, development needs to be carefully managed in the vicinity of airport operations. However, there is also a need for airports to be easily accessible to population centres. There is a need to ensure that developments are undertaken in a way that is compatible with airport operations, both now and into the future. ” The National Airports Safeguarding Advisory Group aimed to safeguard airports and the communities in their vicinity and has joined with state, territory and local governments to develop a national land use planning regime. To date, these planning principles have not yet been accepted into the various planning regimes managedby states and territories even though ministers agreed to implement the Safeguarding Framework at the Standing Council on Transport and Infrastructure (SCOTI) meeting on May 18 2012.

Not assisting the cause which is fast becoming a major national problem, is the Australian Standard AS 2021 governing acoustics and aircraft noise intrusion for building siting and construction. This standard is being revised. Unfortunately the process has been disappointing for aviation in general. The industry has experienced a number of difficulties in getting fair and reasonable representation as part of the process.

The reality is that noise doesn’t stop at a line on a map. According to this standard, developers are justified in erecting high density housing where households will be woken multiple times a night by aircraft noise. The risk of curfews looms large.

Pressure from land developers and community action groups can lead to various development agendas being pursued and the interests of the airport, the region or the specific community it serves are often not considered. Immediate economic benefit is a powerful motivator.

It is imperative that land use planning surrounding airports is controlled to ensure the airports’ capacity is not restricted or that development has an adverse impact on airport operations. Current interpretation by the Department is that it does not have the power to veto developments that will impede trade, or negatively impact tourism and regional development.

While some safeguarding exists for federally-leased airports, the same provisions do not apply to any other airports.

As this is an industry-wideproblem not limited to airports alone, the AAA would like to work much closer in future with other stakeholders, such as the Local Government Association of Australia.

The AAA has initiated a number of initiatives designed to proactively support a common base that both industry and government can use in order to act responsibly regarding future-proofing aviation.

Airports must be integrated into local planning schemes and it is critical that government acts to protect our national transport system.

Allowing communities to make optimal use of airports will see changes to reduce community impacts (such as noise) and enable new flightpaths to be developed.