Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-31
RIGHT TO DOMAIN
IN AIR IS SOUGHT
Committee on Port Zoning
Makes Recommendation
to Regulate Traffic.

Metropolitan areas of the future will
embrace territory Of radius Of 100
miles. That is the development fore
cast by the Committee on Airport Zon-
ing. The committee, in its report just
made to the aeronautics braT1ch Of the
Department of Commerce, foreSees that
cities in the future will have at least
one cloSe-in airport with a chain Of
secondary airports and landing fields
farther out. If aviation transport pro-
duces this development, it would mean
that cities such as New York would
take in parts of New Jersey, Pennsyl-
vania and New England.
To cope with the requirements od
such metropolitan areas. the commit
tee seeks the right of eminent domain
in the air. The committee was formed
to study methods of securing safe ave-
nues of approach to landing fields and
Of maintaining fields of sufficient num-
Der and capacity to meet the needs Of
the travelling public. To each COM
munity, the report states, the airport
is Of supreme importance. Such air.
ports should be free from encroach-
mentS or distractions that impede the
ready access to and from the landing
area. The committee finds that the
airport should, therefore, have the
right to condemn additional areas that
may be required.
Regulation to BE Necessary.
When the larger flying equipment,
with heavier wing and power loads,
comes into greater use such regulations
will surely be required. Such planes,
it Is made clear, require faster landing
and taking-oh speed, with increased
runs in consequence.
The committee finds that the air.
ports need power to condemn air
easements over surrounding land and
power to condemn the rights to mark
structures of q hazardous nature.
In landing and taking OF, airplaneS
travel forward from z to 10 feet for
each foot of rise or fall. Consequently,
structures in the neighborhood of the
airport constitute perils. Any structure
100 feet high at the end of a runway
reduces the effectiveness of that run
way by TOO feet.
Among the most dangerous obstacles
which the committee considered were
the telegraph and telephone lines, es-
pecially high-tensioned transmission
lines. The committee declares that
wherever possible all such lines in the
neighborhood of airports should be put
under ground or at least removed from
the proximity of the airport.
The report declares that it Is unfair
to require public or Semi-public air.
ports to pay for adjoining lands or
rights to the air above them in order
to obtain safe approach. The COM
mittee, therefore, says that the pro-
lection Of the interest of the public In
it's enjoyment of air transportation
should be assured by safe avenues of
approach for aircraft using established
terminals and intermediate landing
fields. 1t recommends that State Leg
islatures extend the existing law to
include coming regulations by the State
as well as by municipalities. It adds
that the municipalities and additional
subdivisions exercise the police power
to properly coordinate coming ordi-
nances.
Eminent Domain.
It concludes that public airports and
individual landing fields as well as COM
mercial fields of the public utility class
should be given the powers of eminent
domain. These powers, however, would
be restricted to the ability to condemn
air rights over contiguous property, to
condemn easements of the air for
marking distractions and to condemn
adjoining property in order to meet
public needs. The suggestion Is made
that State Public Utilities Commissions
cooperate to prevent hazards from
electric lines.
tcopyrieht. 1879