Airport to reduce zoning control

LISA HOBBS – News Editor

Warren County Memorial Airport is relinquishing a portion of its zoning control, according to Airport Manager Jim Dyer.

“We hope that this is easier for a non-lawyer to understand, because we are hoping that landowners who want to go to it can understand what’s required or not required. Also, it’s less restrictive in almost every area,” Dyer stated, of the changes being proposed by the Airport Commission and its Zoning Committee.

The information was presented during a county Economic and Agriculture Committee meeting.

Airport Zoning establishes spatial boundaries and land-use rules for different parts of an airport. Dyer says they are designed to remove hazards and have been in existence locally since the 1980s.

“There are really two types of hazards: hazards to the people who in the airplanes and hazards to people who are on the ground who are living nearby or working nearby. Tennessee annotated 42-6 is the Tennessee law that authorizes counties to do it. The ordinances are used to establish land use and height restrictions in different zones. The different zones are based usually by FAA recommendations or local needs, and we’ve done a combination of those.”

Dyer says they examined the topography around the airport and the airport itself and determined that they could reduce the zoning hold that the airport has on both ends of the runway and on both sides of it.

Among the changes:

“It is going to be impossible, or certainly impractical, to extend the runway 1,000 feet towards the southwest. The zoning we have today allows for a 1,000-foot extension. We just don’t think a 1,000-foot extension is really going to happen anytime soon, so why should we zone for it? On the other end, we only have room for a 700-foot extension. Because the highway would interfere, why zone for 1,000 feet when the most you can ever do is 700 feet?”

The current airport zoning restriction controls trees in a three-and-a-half-mile radius of the airport. Dyer says that’s just not needed.

“It was also decided that the approach zones were the most critical and we should concentrate on controlling hazards in those zones. Trees in the approach zones are primary. The proposed one restricts tree control to just the approach zones. There is one for each runway. Plus, we are zoning for that 700-foot-potential extension of the runway.”

There are trees that are currently restricting the use of runway five, which Dyer stated need to be removed.

Another revision controls manmade objects in the 700-foot-potential extension.

“In this zoning revision, we don’t control anything but manmade objects in the approach zone for the extension. We don’t care about trees. We don’t want someone to build something that would preclude us from extending the length of the runway. We would rather everyone know not to put a radio antenna, grain silo or an apartment building that’s eight stories – don’t put anything that would preclude us from extending 700 feet. Seven hundred feet is all we’ve got and eventually, we will need it to grow.”

In every case but one, the restrictions have been loosened.

“The only area that increases is the approach zone for the runway extension. It goes out 700 more feet. That is the only area where this revision adds square footage to something. It’s at the end, at the highest point, and I don’t think it’s going to make any difference to anybody on the ground, but it is the one area that got bigger.”

Attorney Robert Bratcher approved the draft of the new Airport Zoning Ordinance, stated Dyer.

The Warren County Commission will consider the changes during its next monthly session.