Wisconsin Airport Land Use Guidebook – Wisconsin Bureau of Aeronautics

The recently completed Wisconsin Airport Land Use Guidebook provides the state of Wisconsin with its first comprehensive document to address aviation related land use issues.  This document is an expanded version of the Wisconsin Airport Land Use document which has been used in the state of Wisconsin by airports and communities.  Other states have also used this document as a resource to develop their land use related documents.  Stephanie Ward co-authored this document and also served as project manager.

The goals of this guidebook are to provide a working document to be used by planners, decision-makers, and other interested parties, and to provide information and recommendations for dealing with airport incompatible land uses.  The Guidebook is also intended to promote the safety of individuals residing or working near airports through the planning of airport compatible land uses on adjacent land.

This new guidebook takes elements from the California Airport Land Use Planning Handbook and the Oregon Airport Land Use Compatibility Guidebook and blends them with elements specific to Wisconsin. One such element was the implementation of the new Comprehensive Planning Legislation which requires local and regional planning to take airport compatible land uses into consideration during the planning and zoning process. 

The Mead & Hunt team worked closely with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation Bureau of Aeronautics to assess their needs and desires in regard to land use issues.  Mead & Hunt also worked with an advisory committee made up of airport managers, community planners, representatives from other state departments, and professional planning consultants to provide an objective third party assessment of the issues and ideas developed, as well as review of the resulting final document.

A unique aspect of this project has been the development and distribution of an airport land use survey which was conducted to create a baseline from which to address specific airport issues.  A survey was sent to both the airport manager and the airport owner and asked each of these entities to indicate the proximity of various land uses to the airport environs.