Oregon Supreme Court Ruling: Aurora Airport's Proposed Runway Extension Violates State Land Use Laws
Congratulations to the Friends of French Prairie, 1000 Friends of Oregon, the City of Wilsonville, the City of Aurora, and intervenor, Clackamas County for their hard fought and well-earned victory in opposing an Aurora Airport runway expansion. For more than a decade the the Oregon Department of Aviation has tried to extend the runway at the Aurora Airport from 5,004 to 6,004 feet, largely to accommodate affluent corporate and business jet owners.
The Aurora Airport, which primarily serves business jets and flight training activity, logs 94,655 operations per year. Located approximately 15 miles south of Portland, it is one of 28 airports owned by the State Department of Aviation. As explained by 1000 Friends of Oregon, "French Prairie – where the Aurora Airport is situated – contains some of the highest quality farmland in the continental United States and the most available groundwater in Oregon. It is one of the areas surrounding the Portland Metro under the most developmental pressure, and has been designated 'Foundation Agricultural Land' by the Oregon Dept. of Agriculture."
As reported by the Salem Statesman Journal, on 12/09/2021 the Oregon Supreme Court "declined to review a Court of Appeals decision from June that determined the state had tried to circumvent land use laws and the state's land use board of appeals upholding of the state's plan was flawed."
A 12/13/2021 City of Aurora press release described the decision as a "sweeping victory" and pointed out that "the expedited ruling came in just six weeks compared to the customary six months."
An excerpt from a 12/22/2021 1000 Friends of Oregon posting provides additional detail:
"The original Court of Appeals ruling stated that the Oregon Aviation Board's plan to expand the Aurora Airport onto farmland must comply with state land use laws. Oregon's land use laws protect farmland and rural lands from the expansion of urban uses. In this case, an airport accommodating large airplanes.
'The decision by the Supreme Court not to consider for review the ruling by the Court of Appeals is a huge win for Oregon land use. The legal dispute over the Aurora Airport master plan, which is to say, expansion of the Aurora Airport, carries direct negative impacts on traffic, local infrastructure, the adjacent cities of Aurora and Wilsonville, and Oregon agriculture. Most people don't know that some of the area's largest fresh vegetable farms are proximate to this airport and the contemplated expansion would be onto 55 acres of exclusive farm use land. The central part of the Court of Appeals ruling is that we have a land use system, and even state agencies have to comply with land use laws.'
- Ben Williams | President, Friends of French Prairie – an affiliate group of 1000 Friends of Oregon"
State Department of Aviation Begins 2021 Master Planning
The runway expansion proposal that was the subject of the state Supreme Court's decision was predicated on the Aurora Airport's 2011-2012 master plan. In November of 2021, the State Department of Aviation commenced a new master planning process, but like its 2012 predecessor, it too appears to be biased. The glaring irregularities prompted the Mayors of the cities of Wilsonville and Aurora to pen a joint letter to Oregon's Governor expressing dissatisfaction with the heavy handed tactics exhibited by this state agency. Below is an excerpt from their letter as well as a list of some of the concerns expressed therein.
"Dear Governor Brown:
We write to you as the elected leaders of the communities located in closest proximity to the Aurora State Airport to express our profound disappointment at the Oregon Department of Aviation's biased handling of the Aurora State Airport Master Planning process. Our communities bear the brunt of impacts of the airport's operations, and yet the Aviation Department appears to be discounting our concerns and is primarily responsive to vested financial interests at the airport.
This observation is true in general, as Department of Aviation staff and board members indicate meeting constantly with private-sector airport interests, while rarely meeting with local community members, city councilors and staff. Multiple communications from officials at the Cities of Aurora and Wilsonville to the Aviation Department over the past several years are generally ignored and not responded to.
The Cities of Aurora and Wilsonville, along with other Planning Advisory Committee (PAC) members to the Department of Aviation's Aurora State Airport Master Planning process such as 1000 Friends of Oregon and Friends of French Prairie, seek to raise significant issues of public concern. This federally funded master plan has gotten off to a rocky start in a manner that demonstrates the Department's apparent bias and inability at providing fair public processes that meet Oregon's standards for meaningful public engagement."
The list below enumerates some of the concerns raised in the letter.
- "The Department of Aviation has stacked the Planning Advisory Committee with self-dealing financial interests at the Airport that benefit from taxpayer-funded Airport operations and capital improvements. A review of the PAC membership demonstrates that well over half of the PAC membership is comprised of entities with direct pecuniary interest in furthering airport expansion at taxpayer expense...The same pro-airport expansion entities are represented multiple times on the PAC."
- "...the Department of Aviation has omitted two key state agencies as PAC members: Department of Agriculture and Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)."
- "...the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicates that 750 Oregon sites could expose residents to 'forever chemicals' of per- and poly-fluorinated substances or PFAS, where growing evidence points to their adverse health effects, including some cancers. In Oregon, the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is testing locations including the Aurora State Airport for known or suspected PFAS use. Again, the Department of Aviation's exclusion of DEQ demonstrates an on-going pattern of discriminatory conduct."
- "...the Governor's Office Executive Order 20-04 on Climate Action 'Directing State Agencies to Take Actions to Reduce and Regulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions' (GHG) directs DEQ to develop strategies that 'Cap and Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions.' We are concerned that representatives of the Governor's Office appointed to the Oregon Aviation Board and Department of Aviation staff simultaneously are advocating for major expansion of the Aurora State Airport that results in substantial increases in aviation-gas fossil-fuel consumption and GHG emissions, contrary to the Executive Order on Climate Action."
- "One of the major reasons stated by aviation interests for Aurora State Airport runway extension is to increase the sale of aviation fuel so that a larger class of aircraft may takeoff from the airport with full tanks of gas. We note that the tax on aviation fuel is the primary source of operational revenue for the Department of Aviation. Thus, the Department of Aviation has a direct pecuniary interest in advocating for increased aviation-gas fuel sales that would accompany expansion of the Aurora State Airport, seemingly in direct conflict with the Governor's Executive Order on Climate Action."
- "...area residents have expressed concerns for surface-water, ground-water and well-water quality due to prospective airport run-off pollutants, unregulated septic systems and potential ground water pollution."
- The Department of Aviation provided misinformation about the seismic resilience of the Aurora Airport.
Lead Pollution at the Aurora Airport
Though jets use jet fuel rather than leaded avgas, the piston-engine flight training and private aircraft activity at the Aurora Airport, roughly 50 percent of total operations, spew lead into the air. According to the 2017 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Emissions Inventory, the Aurora Airport is the fourth largest facility source of lead emissions in Oregon and the top source of this pollutant in Marion County. Aircraft activity at this airport releases more than 539 pounds of lead into the air annually during the landing and take-off cycle. Additional lead is released during ground run-ups, training exercises, and overflights.
Lead emitted by aircraft poses an additional threat to the prime farmland in the vicinity of the Aurora Airport. EPA documentation states that "Lead is persistent in the environment and can be added to soils and sediments through deposition from sources of lead air pollution... Elevated lead in the environment can result in decreased growth and reproduction in plants and animals, and neurological effects in vertebrates."
Closing Remarks
The concerns voiced above by Mayors Asher and Fitzgerald speak to the historically pro-expansion bias of the Aurora Airport Master Planning process. Unfortunately, the Aurora Airport is just one example of the way Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other government funded airport planning and research occurs in Oregon and across this country. Airport advisory committees are often stacked with aviation business representatives who go to great lengths to squelch public input. More often than not, their decisions are extremely one-sided efforts geared towards forcing the public to not only foot the bill but to also bear the brunt of the noise, pollution, environmental degradation, loss of valuable farmland and other adverse impacts of airport expansions.
For additional information on this topic visit the Land Use section of their Friends of French Prairie website.
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