Public hearing set on airport overlay

November 23, 2011

Boundary County commissioners will hold public hearing at 10 a.m. Tuesday, December 20, to accept public comment on establishing an airport overlay zone proposed by the Boundary County Airport Board that will require airport approval before development permits can be submitted to planning and zoning on properties surrounding the airport. The proposal is needed, Airport Board members say, so as to protect an important local economic engine and to assure that grants afforded by the Federal Aviation Administration, which have made possible vast improvements to the airport's infrastructure over the past several years, remain available. Next week, notices will be mailed to all property owners within the most restrictive zone, a rectangle centered on the airport runway extending from inside Bonners Ferry city limits on the south to a point extending nearly to Oxford Road on the north, in which any land use application submitted to county planning and zoning will have to be signed by an authorized airport staffer to be accepted. The airport board is encouraging the City of Bonners Ferry to establish the same requirement for a handful of city properties located within the zone. In addition, property owners up to 2.65 miles away who proposed structures taller than 150-feet in height above ground surface will also require to get authorized airport approval before a development application can be accepted by Planning and Zoning for processing. "It will add an additional requirement on about 100 property owners who have land within the rectangular zone right around the airport who want to build," said zoning administrator Mike Weland, "but except in extreme cases I don't anticipate the requirement to cause too much of a burden. Under the new zoning ordinance adopted this month, the days of walking in, making application to build a house and walking out with a permit are over, as a ten-day waiting period has been imposed to allow input from the various county departments. The airport overlay zone will ensure that airport staff has a chance to look at the applications within that zone before they're accepted so as to ensure that nothing built around the airport will interfere with FAA requirements or impede the airport's ability to accommodate air traffic." In 12 years on the job, Weland said, there've been some close calls concerning building height encroaching into the airport overlay, but none that have hurt the airport in its ability to comply with the FAA. "Trees have been more of a problem than buildings," Weland said, "as we don't have many skyscrapers here. But with the growing need for towers, there is a potential that problems could arise, and this ordinance, if passed, will ensure that such problems are avoided and that our airport can continue to grow and improve." Airport staff was actively involved in the process of developing the new zoning ordinance, and much of the land within and around the tightest proposed airport zone was re-classified as commercial/light industrial to deter residential development and to prevent the establishment of places where people might gather on a regular basis, such as churches and schools. Places where, in an aviation emergency, an aircraft ceding the laws of aeronautics and giving in to the laws of gravity might better be a plane wreck rather than a civil disaster. The planning and zoning ordinance, however, requires that the Airport Board adopt and administer the specifics of its own overlay ordiance, as only a trained aviator can truly understand the arcane language of aviation and why it's important. "Under our old ordinance, I was tasked with trying to understand glide paths, approach zones and all the other terminology that pilots know as a matter of course so as to administer something I knew nothing about," Weland said. "As an Army brat, I grew up in airplanes and jets crossing the ocean and the nation. As a paratrooper, I jumped out of airplanes and other aircraft. As a reporter, Don Jordan once handed me the controls of his airplane and nearly scared me to death, telling me to keep the flight level and line up for approach. I kept the plane in the air,amazed that I was actually flying the plane, Don, thank goodness, took over and flew the plane in. As a former paratrooper, it still scares me nearly to the point of paralysis to land in an airplane, be it a jet airliner or a small craft. Don landed me safely, but I'm sure I severely crippled his armrest. Pilot Ron Sukenik took me aloft a few years ago from the Boundary County Airport that I could lay my son's ashes to rest along Deer Creek ... I don't remember the landing well, but he brought me to the ground safely, and walked me away from his airplane with his arm across my shoulder. I am forever grateful for what he did for my family and I that day. I think the public, both those flying and those on the ground, would much prefer if I, or those people who will one day occupy the P&Z administrator's chair, let the people who know what they're talking about and doing administer the airport overlay. I have no doubt that Dave Parker and the airport board agree unanimously that the public will be better served by experienced aviators taking care of this new law, and, as the grounded zoning administrator, I have no doubt that the airport overlay is an essential part of our community's economy. For most, it's not going to mean much. For some, it might raise controversy, as they might need a taller buildingwhere height can't be allowed. It's the county's hope that everyone affected will take part in the public hearing process, that they might factor in all concerns raised. Send written comments to County Commissioners, PO Box 419, Bonners Ferry, ID 83805, or email commissioners@boundarycountyid.org, not later than Thursday, December 15.