Examples of Facility Space Provided for Community Use at Airports (2022)

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5   Literature Review and Regulatory Issues Literature Review The standard literature search performed for this synthesis discovered little mention of community use facilities at airports. A number of related topics were discovered in ACRP publications. Other literature searches uncovered a published survey of airports that provide meeting space for public use (Halpern, Graham, and Davidson 2012). That survey is not particularly helpful because it focuses on the commercial (rather than community) aspects of providing airport meeting space, does not include in-depth case examples of particular kinds of airport facilities provided for community use, and is now out of date. Because some airport sustainability plans contain sections addressing social and economic sustainability, the study also included searches related to FAA’s 2010 Sustainable Master Plan Pilot Program, which provides Airport Improvement Program funding to eligible airports for the development of sustainability plans. The FAA website contains a number of sustain- ability plans funded by the Pilot Program; a review of the relevant elements of the plans can be found in the following sections. Both FAA and ACRP have published assessments of the pilot program and the sustainability plans funded by the program. Federal Grant Assurances The community use of airport facilities is generally permissible under current federal regu- lations. FAA Grant Assurance 24 requires airports to be as self-sustaining as possible and to maintain a rate and fee structure that conforms to the federal grant assurances and is consistent with FAA’s Policy Regarding Airport Rates and Charges. FAA Grant Assurance 25 prohibits airports from diverting airport revenue for nonaeronautical purposes. Regarding Grant Assurance No. 24, as Chapter 17 of FAA’s Airport Compliance Manual explains rates and charges for the use of airport property must, generally, be “reasonable” (FAA 2009). The chapter goes on to note that fair market value is the standard test for the rate appli- cable to the use of nonaeronautical property. FAA, however, recognizes exceptions to the fair market value yardstick for the use of airport property. Among these exceptions are property used for “(a) community purposes and (b) not-for-profit aviation organizations, (c) transit projects and systems, and (d) military aeronautical units”; but the chapter does not further define these property uses (FAA 2009, 17-4). C H A P T E R   2

6 Examples of Facility Space Provided for Community Use at Airports The Airport Compliance Manual further explains that an airport sponsor may make air- port property available for community use at less than fair market value on a limited basis if six conditions are present: (a) The property is not needed for an aeronautical purpose, (b) The property is not producing airport revenue and there are no near-term prospects for producing revenue, (c) Allowing the community purpose will not affect the aeronautical use of the airport, (d) Allowing the community purpose will maintain or enhance positive community relations in support of the airport, (e) The proposed community use of the property is consistent with the Airport Layout Plan (ALP), and (f) The proposed community use of the property is consistent with other requirements, such as certain surplus and nonsurplus property federal obligations requiring the production of revenue by all airport parcels. (FAA 2009, 17-4). Each of these six elements involves legal and practical considerations that are outside the scope of this report. Airports should consult with legal counsel and examine how each of these six elements has developed through subsequent regulation, litigation, and FAA guidance in the airport’s region. A similar exception with a slightly different formulation appears in the same guidance with reference to Grant Assurance 25’s revenue diversion prohibition. The rules regarding airport revenue diversion generally require that all revenue generated by a public airport must be expended only for the capital or operating costs of the airport, the local airport system, or other local facilities owned or operated by the airport and directly related to the actual trans- portation of passengers or property. According to the Airport Compliance Manual, however, there exists the following exception to the revenue diversion rules: (h) Community Activities: An airport may use its revenue to support a community’s use of airport property if the expenditures are directly and substantially related to the operation of the airport. (FAA 2009, 15-5) As stated previously regarding Grant Assurance 24, the rules regarding revenue diversion are nuanced and airports should consult with legal counsel and examine how each of the elements of the “Community Activities” exception to Grant Assurance 25 and the revenue diversion rules have developed through subsequent regulation, litigation, and FAA guidance in the airport’s region. FAA Sustainability Pilot Program In 2010, FAA began a program that provides eligible airports with grant funding under the Airport Improvement Program (https://www.faa.gov/airports/aip/) in order to develop “com- prehensive sustainability planning documents.” These sustainability planning documents were to include plans for “reducing the environmental effects of airport operations, achieving economic benefits, and increasing an airport’s integration with [its] local communities.” FAA’s Airport Sustainability page explains the program and its history (see https://www.faa.gov/ airports/environmental/sustainability/). The Airport Sustainability page also identifies the 43 airports that have received grant funding for the development of Sustainability Master Plans and Sustainable Management Plans. Sus- tainability Master Plans fully integrate sustainability into an airport’s long-range planning, and Sustainable Management Plans are stand-alone documents that describe how and why the plan will be implemented. Both documents are directed at similar goals, however, because they use similar baseline assessments of environmental resources and community outreach to identify

Literature Review and Regulatory Issues 7   sustainability objectives that will reduce the environmental effects of airport operations, realize economic benefits for the airport, and improve an airport’s relations with its community. Several of the sustainability plans developed by airports that have received funding under the pilot program are included on the Airport Sustainability page. These plans are interest- ing documents in their own right, but they are generally unhelpful for the purposes of this paper because they pay only limited attention to the community use of airport facilities. Any mentions of such community use are generalized and aspirational. Nevertheless, these plans articulate helpful policy bases and goals for those facility uses: mentioned in the reports are such objectives as creating positive relationships with an airport’s community and institu- tions, supporting economic growth in the region through recruitment and business relation- ships, using art and social events to create goodwill with the airport community, expanding educational opportunities, and providing a forum for the airport to explain its operations, plans for future development, and positive effect on the local and regional communities. During interviews conducted for this synthesis, many airports restated these generalized goals as the basis for providing airport facilities for use by their local communities. Finally, the Airport Sustainability page provides in its Resources section a link to the Sustainable Aviation Guidance Alliance (SAGA) Sustainability Database (http://www. airportsustainability.org). The SAGA database is a valuable resource for airports interested in social and economic sustainability because it (a) collects examples of sustainability activities at other airports, (b) is searchable, (c) is updated at intervals, and (d) allows airports to share information.