2024 Florida Statutes
< Back to Statute SearchTitle XXV AVIATION
Chapter 333
AIRPORT ZONING
SECTION 03Requirement to adopt airport zoning regulations.
333.03 Requirement to adopt airport zoning regulations.—
(1)(a) Every political subdivision having an airport hazard area within its territorial limits shall adopt, administer, and enforce, under the police power and in the manner and upon the conditions prescribed in this section, airport protection zoning regulations for such airport hazard area.
(b) If an airport is owned or controlled by a political subdivision and if any other political subdivision has land upon which an obstruction may be constructed or altered which underlies any surface of the airport as provided in 14 C.F.R. part 77, subpart C, the political subdivisions shall either:
1. By interlocal agreement, adopt, administer, and enforce a set of airport protection zoning regulations; or
2. By ordinance, regulation, or resolution duly adopted, create a joint airport protection zoning board that shall adopt, administer, and enforce a set of airport protection zoning regulations. The joint airport protection zoning board shall have as voting members two representatives appointed by each participating political subdivision and a chair elected by a majority of the members so appointed. The airport manager or a representative of each airport in the affected participating political subdivisions shall serve on the board in a nonvoting capacity.
(c) Airport protection zoning regulations adopted under paragraph (a) must, at a minimum, require:
1. A permit for the construction or alteration of any obstruction;
2. Obstruction marking and lighting for obstructions;
3. Documentation showing compliance with the federal requirement for notification of proposed construction or alteration of structures and a valid aeronautical study submitted by each person applying for a permit;
4. Consideration of the criteria in s. 333.025(6), when determining whether to issue or deny a permit; and
5. That approval of a permit not be based solely on the determination by the Federal Aviation Administration that the proposed structure is not an airport hazard.
(d) The department shall be available to provide assistance to political subdivisions regarding federal obstruction standards.
(2) In the manner provided in subsection (1), political subdivisions shall adopt, administer, and enforce airport land use compatibility zoning regulations. At a minimum, airport land use compatibility zoning regulations must address the following:
(a) The prohibition of new landfills and the restriction of existing landfills within the following areas:
1. Within 10,000 feet from the nearest point of any runway used or planned to be used by turbine aircraft.
2. Within 5,000 feet from the nearest point of any runway used by only nonturbine aircraft.
3. Outside the perimeters defined in subparagraphs 1. and 2., but still within the lateral limits of the civil airport imaginary surfaces defined in 14 C.F.R. s. 77.19. Case-by-case review of such landfills is advised.
(b) When any landfill is located and constructed in a manner that attracts or sustains hazardous bird movements from feeding, water, or roosting areas into, or across, the runways or approach and departure patterns of aircraft. The landfill operator must incorporate bird management techniques or other practices to minimize bird hazards to airborne aircraft.
(c) When an airport authority or other governing body operating a public-use airport has conducted a noise study in accordance with 14 C.F.R. part 150, or when a public-use airport owner has established noise contours pursuant to another public study accepted by the Federal Aviation Administration, the prohibition of incompatible uses, as established in the noise study in 14 C.F.R. part 150, Appendix A or as a part of an alternative Federal Aviation Administration-accepted public study, within the noise contours established by any of these studies, except if such uses are specifically contemplated by such study with appropriate mitigation or similar techniques described in the study.
(d) When an airport authority or other governing body operating a public-use airport has not conducted a noise study, the prohibition of residential construction and educational facilities, with the exception of aviation school facilities or residential property near a public-use airport that has as its sole runway a turf runway measuring less than 2,800 feet in length, within an area contiguous to the airport measuring one-half the length of the longest runway on either side of and at the end of each runway centerline.
(e) The restriction of new incompatible uses, activities, or substantial modifications to existing incompatible uses within runway protection zones.
(3) Political subdivisions shall provide a copy of all airport protection zoning regulations and airport land use compatibility zoning regulations, and any related amendments, to the department’s aviation office within 30 days after adoption.
(4) Subsection (2) may not be construed to require the removal, alteration, sound conditioning, or other change, or to interfere with the continued use or adjacent expansion of any educational facility or site in existence on July 1, 1993.
(5) Sections 125.01055(7) and 166.04151(7) do not apply to any of the following:
(a) A proposed development near a runway within one-quarter of a mile laterally from the runway edge and within an area that is the width of one-quarter of a mile extending at right angles from the end of the runway for a distance of 10,000 feet of any existing airport runway or planned airport runway identified in the local government’s airport master plan.
(b) A proposed development within any airport noise zone identified in the federal land use compatibility table or in a land-use zoning or airport noise regulation adopted by the local government.
(c) A proposed development that exceeds maximum height restrictions identified in the political subdivision’s airport zoning regulation adopted pursuant to this section.
(6) This section does not prohibit an airport authority, a political subdivision or its administrative agency, or any other governing body operating a public-use airport from establishing airport zoning regulations more restrictive than prescribed in this section in order to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public in the air and on the ground.
History.—s. 3, ch. 23079, 1945; s. 4, ch. 75-16; s. 4, ch. 88-356; s. 72, ch. 90-136; s. 8, ch. 92-152; s. 10, ch. 93-164; s. 1, ch. 94-201; s. 958, ch. 95-148; s. 971, ch. 2002-387; s. 3, ch. 2016-209; s. 23, ch. 2016-239; s. 4, ch. 2023-197; s. 3, ch. 2024-57; s. 7, ch. 2024-188.