The FAA has recently proposed modifications to it's 'through the fence' (TTF) policy pertaining to residential access to public airports. 'Through the fence' airport access is when an off airport property, residential or commercial has direct access for their airplane onto the airport. This is usually seen with private airparks where all the residences have hangers attached to the homes and provide direct access to the runway for all home owners.
FAA acting Assistant Administrator for Airports, Catherine Lang, on Wednesday, reiterated the FAA's position to the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee Wednesday seeking a ban on new through the fence agreements and seeking assurances for those agreements already in place.
The FAA states that there are 75 public use airports that currently maintain some sort of TTF agreement. According to FAA statistics, there are over 3,300 public use airports listed in the NPIAS (National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems) that have either received or are eligible to receive federal funds via grants from the Airport Improvement Program (AIP).
Airports receiving funds from the AIP grant program use the money for safety and and efficiency improvements. Airports receiving these funds are held to strict standards and requirements. The airport owners or sponsors and organizations accepting these funds are also held to certain binding assurances the recipients maintain and operate the airport safely and efficiently. These assurances have actually help to keep airports open when local politicians or citizen groups have attempt to permanently close or restrict operations at local airports.
The FAA feels that current TTF policies can run afoul of these grant assurances by preventing future improvements, safety modifications or expansion of the public-use airport. The FAA's initial stance was to block all TTF's, including one's currently in affect. This led to complaints from residents, airports and organizations such as the EAA and AOPA. Residents vocally defended current standing agreements by stating that the agreements added considerable value to their homes and that revoking these would result in an excessive, irreversible decline in their property values.
The FAA has recently reviewed the initial response and has dramatically amended their proposed rule to state that public use airports would not be allowed to establish new TTF agreements but would allow current TTF agreements to remain in place, pending certain assurances themselves.
Airports with current TTF agreements must enforce general authority for control of airport land and access which would allow for safe operations and future changes to the airport. All user's of TTF access must comply with all airport rules and standards and also pay fee's to the airport in order to be responsible for their fair share of airport costs resulting from their TTF access use. The owners in the TTF agreement will also need to ensure that airspace around the airport is not affected by their hangers or structures that may be added in the future, in essence, ensuring the surrounding property remains compatible with airport use.
For non-pilots and non-aviation enthusiasts, TTF access can provide an elitist appearance to the airport, that it is for use of the affluent residents surrounding the airport and of little benefit to the rest of the municipality where it's located. By limiting further private access to public airports, the FAA is in part hoping for a better acceptance of general aviation public airports by the general public.
As the rule is still only a proposed rule, changes to the rule are still possible and a new report on the policy will be done once it is finalized.
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