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1 Jodi L. Howick, Compilation of State Airport Authorizing Legislation 1 (2012)

handle is hein.scsl/cosairporle0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Responsible Senior Program Officer: Gwen Chisholm Smith Legal Research Digest 15 COMPILATION OF STATE AIRPORT AUTHORIZING LEGISLATION This report was prepared under ACRP Project 11-01, Legal Aspects of Airport Programs, for which the Transportation Research Board (TRB) is the agency coordinating the research. The report was prepared by Jodi L. Howick, Esq., Durham, Jones & Pinegar, Salt Lake City, Utah. James B. McDaniel, TRB Counsel for Legal Research Projects, was the principal investigator and content editor. Background There are over 4,000 airports in the country and most of these airports are owned by governments. A 2003 survey conducted by Airports Council International-North Amer- ica concluded that city ownership accounts for 38 percent, followed by regional airports at 25 percent, single county at 17 percent, and multi-jurisdictional at 9 percent. Pri- mary legal services to these airports are, in most cases, provided by municipal, county, and state attorneys. Reports and summaries produced by the Airport Con- tinuing Legal Studies Project and published as ACRP Legal Research Digests are developed to assist these attorneys seeking to deal with the myriad of legal problems encoun- tered during airport development and operations. Such sub- stantive areas as eminent domain, environmental concerns, leasing, contracting, security, insurance, civil rights, and tort liability present cutting-edge legal issues where re- search is useful and indeed needed. Airport legal research, when conducted through the TRB's legal studies process, either collects primary data that usually are not available elsewhere or performs analysis of existing literature. Applications Most United States airports are government entities, and as such, state laws provide the means to create an airport entity and authorize its operating powers. An airport enti- ty's local powers are essential to allow it to operate and meet its federal obligations. Each state has enacted legis- lation creating and empowering governmental entities such as state agencies, municipalities, airport authorities, joint power organizations, etc., to plan, design, construct, operate, and protect public airports. As a state entity, an airport only has the authority that state law confers. State laws create a variety of structures under which units of government can conduct airport operations. Some of these structures, such as a city or county, are designed to con- duct general government, and the operation of an airport constitutes one activity among many that the entity pur- sues. Other structures are instead designed to provide for the operation of a specific activity. As a result, there is a national patchwork of legislation pursuant to which these airports operate. There is some diversity from state to state in the breadth and specificity of legislation empowering airport owners and operators. But there are many similari- ties as well. The purpose of this digest is to present information that has been compiled, reviewed, and summarized per- taining to each state's airport-specific legislation, includ- ing laws establishing, developing, operating, expanding, and funding airports. The compilation focuses on legisla- tion expressly applicable to public airports rather than legislation applicable to local governments generally. It compares and contrasts zoning and land use; purchasing authority; commercial operations; ground transportation, funding, and taxing authority; law enforcement; and sov- ereign immunity. This digest seeks to provide policy-makers, airport op- erators, and other practitioners a convenient and synthe- sized resource of all states' airport-specific legislation. It should be useful to attorneys, legislators, administrators, airport planning officials, financial officials, community participants, and all persons interested in the legal struc- ture for airport development and operations. TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

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