See the picture....I'm craning up trusses on a new 26 home subdivision. Looks like an airpark, right? Not! It's a new residential subdivision in Blackfoot Idaho, and the airport is right across the street. At one point, during a lull in the work, I called the city planners, and told them who I was, what I was doing, and how come " these airplanes were flying so close to me?" Before I could get a response I told them I was first and foremost a pilot, and just wondered if the people building this house like airplanes....they better! I was told by the city person that this issue had been addressed, and "something" was put in the permit language to dissuade future homeowners from bitching, let's hope so. Planes on short final for 01 were so close.... that except for a designated airpark type development I have never seen the like.....for Joe Sixpack and the Missus, they just better like airplanes is all I can say. I will keep a close eye on this and bring down the wrath of God on the first homeowner who complains Maybe more of the gen pub like airplanes then I imagine, we'll see.

I’ve been scratching my head over that one. Seems like the planners are pretty short sighted to develop that area with houses. What are you going to do though...small town politics.

I was hoping you'd chime in, being a local, almost. When I first saw the dirt work I figured it was light commercial, not residential. Let's hope all 26 homes are for pilots!

I can't speak for the city's local zoning rules for building in the airport's flight path, but it appears they had the surveying company run the 30+ homesites all the way up to the FAA for evaluation for impact to flight procedures. Ultimately is was determined that there was "No Impact to Navigation' and the houses would be listed as "Low Close-In Obstacles" for departure planning. You can read the entire evaluation here on the
OE/AAA site:
https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external/searchAction.jsp?action=displayOECase&oeCaseID=364374884&row=18

Well that airport is doomed.

I seem to recall that it never got a lot of use to begin with, what with being between IDA and PHC...seems the last time I landed there they fueled me out of a portable 100 gallon gas trailer, and I was just lucky someone was around to do it.

I'd love to believe the airport and the sub-devision will coexist, but they won't. The home owners, and the realtors, and the developers and the banks that they suckle off of will bitch and scream and stomp their feet, and the easiest and most lucrative course of action for the city will be to close the airport and build more homes on the graves of the tie-downs.

Legal evolution, outside the Constitution, is hard and expensive to deter. The city airport at Carthege, Missouri was a good one and willed perpetual. The donor's children sold out the dead father and it is now a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

It seems sometimes we are less a country of laws and more a country of lawyers.

Unfortunately Hammer is probably right. The Blackfoot airport is actually pretty busy for a small town airfield and is pretty well liked by the city officials but there are lots of complaints about it from people that aren’t pilots. There is a fuel pump and a pretty nice pilot lounge. They really need to make the pump self-serve though.

Similar situation in Rexburg. They are currently looking for a new location for the airport.

A recorded avigation easement can be useful in fighting the noise NIMBYs who will move in. It's a good defense against B.S. nuisance claims, but in the long run nothing can solve nimby politics if money wants the airport land.

Folks who build near airports love airplanes and would never dream of complaining about airplane noise. Just ask all the happy residents of Santa Monica how much they love SMO

The thread title reminded me of Vista Field in Kennewick, WA.

Vista field 1955


2017 RIP

whee wrote:Unfortunately Hammer is probably right. The Blackfoot airport is actually pretty busy for a small town airfield and is pretty well liked by the city officials but there are lots of complaints about it from people that aren’t pilots. There is a fuel pump and a pretty nice pilot lounge. They really need to make the pump self-serve though.

Similar situation in Rexburg. They are currently looking for a new location for the airport.

Jon,

Check the price of a “secure” card lock system these days. You’ll be amazed. I’m amazed that there are still any fuel vendors out there.

MTV

A subdivision was permitted just south of the Rexburg, Idaho Airport that was developed by the city attorney, go figure. Add a daily UPS flight as well as complaints, and it is now on the FAA's radar to be moved. The two local FBO's will not follow as well as most of the local hangar owners. It will be ghost town without services, it will take a few years, but Blackfoot will follow the same path. I love progress.

Spot on with the Vista Field comparison!

Washington has some sort of regulation that land use near airports mustn't be incompatible with the airport.
It hasn't seemed to stop houses being built near airports or under traffic patterns / traffic flow though.
We had a bunch of noise complainers near my airport a few years ago,
the county decided maybe all the properties affected by airport noise needed to have their titles ammeded to say so.
Since they figured that would devalue their properties if & when they sold them,
all the complainers decided that the airport didn't cause a noise problem after all.
Pretty funny to hear them about-facing at a public meeting about this issue.

TOA-Cub wrote:Folks who build near airports love airplanes and would never dream of complaining about airplane noise. Just ask all the happy residents of Santa Monica how much they love SMO

Copy that.

I was based out of Vista until it was ruined and I moved the plane to Richland.

All the 'beautiful' development they planned?

It's been years. Nothing but tumbleweeds and hangars falling apart.

Small town politics indeed.

Huh, to my surprise, looked at from the air today, the new place I worked on doesn't look that close! Though a plane could taxi on the over run up to the fence and get a lot closer, that is unlikely. The restaurant in the foreground has an outdoor seating area, and word is the planes on short final are a big hit with the customers, almost a feature of the joint, positive in other words.

I really need to see about cleaning my phone's camera lense, what a crappy pic.