Airport Planning Documents

Airport Master Plan

An airport master plan provides a road map for efficiently meeting aviation demand through the foreseeable future while preserving the flexibility necessary to respond to changing industry conditions.  The original Master Plan was developed in 1988 and provided guidance for the airport through 50 million annual passengers. Now that this threshold has been met, plans to take the airport’s development to the year 2030 are completed. The goal of a master plan is to provide the framework needed to guide future airport development that will allow the airport to keep pace with aviation growth and demand cost effectively, while also considering potential environmental and socioeconomic impacts.  Master Plans also provide the airport with the tools to react to uncertainties by examining key trends in the aviation industry, such as changing airline business models, improvements in technology and local/regional economics that could affect airport activity. 

Airport Layout Plan

An Airport Layout Plan (ALP) is a scaled drawing depicting existing and proposed future facilities and property necessary to the operation and development of the airport. An ALP is a requirement of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the ALP must be approved before development can begin. Development depicted on the ALP in green indicates future planed on-airport development. The ALP will be updated to reflect the results of the Master Plan. 

Environmental Assessment 

Environmental assessment (EA) is the assessment of the environmental consequences (positive and negative) of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the term "environmental impact assessment" (EIA) is usually used when applied to actual projects by individuals or companies and the term "strategic environmental assessment" (SEA) applies to policies, plans and programmes most often proposed by organs of state. Environmental assessments may be governed by rules of administrative procedure regarding public participation and documentation of decision making, and may be subject to judicial review.

The purpose of the assessment is to ensure that decision makers consider the environmental impacts when deciding whether or not to proceed with a project. The International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) defines an environmental impact assessment as "the process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the biophysical, social, and other relevant effects of development proposals prior to major decisions being taken and commitments made". EIAs are unique in that they do not require adherence to a predetermined environmental outcome, but rather they require decision makers to account for environmental values in their decisions and to justify those decisions in light of detailed environmental studies and public comments on the potential environmental impacts.