Written by From Mark Hancock, Renton citizen:
Hi Marcie, Don & Randy –
Sometime back, I found a list of FAA/airport law cases, and finally relocated it tonight (it’s an eye opener):
http://home.netvista.net/hpb/cases.html
As we all know, the FAA is not easy to deal with, and usually wins. Even the City of Naples, Florida, famous for having beaten them in court, spent
$3.4 million in studies and legal fees over 5 years to justify and defend their ban on Stage 2 jets.
http://www.soundinitiative.org/documents/NaplesJetBanStudy.doc
Mayor Tanner reminded us all a few years ago that the FAA can require airport related uses, but they cannot tell us who we have to lease to. It is easier (and cheaper) to deal with things up front, than after we let businesses/users into our property and the FAA gets more involved and has more leverage.
So my points are:
1) When we let anybody onto the airport property with a lease, we are opening the door for them to then demand, with the FAA’s help, expanded services and operations. Short leases are about the only leverage you will have in dealing with them, both when they are first brought in, and thereafter. 10 years is plenty for a lease (with maybe a couple 5-year extensions), but any extensions should be at the City of Renton’s sole option (not tenant supported language that requires you to renew the options “not unreasonably withheld” where you lose your leverage – it’s your land, not theirs). That’s the way any other landlord would do it – you don’t owe them anything. You can also put in language that they have to agree to a buyout of their lease anytime after 5 or 10 years if Boeing wants to expand (for a pre-arranged price that’s in the lease). Your consideration of the City owning the building allows for the shorter leases, since the tenant cannot claim they need a longer one to pay for the building.
2) The Council really needs an experienced aviation specialty lawyer (now), who knows the rules of the game and knows how to stand up to the FAA, and how to word policies and do airport tenant leases within those rules to the City’s advantage. It should also be a lawyer for the Council (not beholden to the Mayor or Ryan and their jet center promoting friends). If you can spend $30,000 (or whatever it was) on a wayfinding sign program in the City, you can certainly find the money for something far more important such as a good lawyer for this situation. A regular contract lawyer will not do for something as serious and long-impacting as this. Again, a landlord business would not try to take on a responsiblity of this magnitude without proper experienced outside legal counsel.
3) It is important that “quality of life” for Renton neighborhoods and citizens be in the airport leasing policies as a criteria you can use when you consider a prosective tenant (or between prospective tenants). There are a whole set of criteria that are missing at this point – e.g. noise by/over homes, economic gains to the City and its citizens/businesses, etc.
etc. By adding these specific factors to your list, you can use them in justifying your decisions.
Thanks again for all your hard work and time on this, Mark Hancock
Here’s a little more info if you’re interested:
Airport Noise Law home page (lots of good stuff here):
http://home.netvista.net/hpb/index.html
Naples Court Decision:
http://home.netvista.net/hpb/cases/naples6.html
Organization of Cities & Airports to ban Stage 1 & 2 small jets:
http://www.soundinitiative.org/index.htm
(note Frank Lautenberg legislation introduced in Congress in January)
Case studies here:
http://www.soundinitiative.org/Casestudy.htm
which includes these documents:
Naples Airport: $3.1 Million Addressing Stage 2 Noise…and still counting.
http://www.soundinitiative.org/documents/naplesairport.doc
Nation’s airport officials now studying Naples jet ban case “For five years, the Naples Airport Authority was embroiled in a battle with the FAA. During that time, the authority spent more than $3.4 million”
_________________________________________________________________
Like the way Microsoft Office Outlook works? You’ll love Windows Live Hotmail.
http://imagine-windowslive.com/hotmail/?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migration_HM_mini_outlook_0507
Recent Comments