The Hillsboro Airport Issues Roundtable (HAIR) Land Use Subcommittee hosted a community open house on May 15 at the Hillsboro Civic Center. Approximately 25 people attended, asking questions and providing comments on the Airport Zone and Airport Overlay Zone. The subcommittee will meet one more time to discuss the comments and feedback received regarding the draft Airport Compatibility Overlay Zone.
The 2005 Hillsboro Airport Compatibility Study Update recommends the implementation of a series of operational and land use measures to ensure and improve the compatibility of the airport with surrounding land uses. The land use recommendations are the focus of the HAIR Land Use Subcommittee.
The land use recommendations were developed with input from a Technical Advisory Group made up of 10 people representing local government agencies, citizens-at-large, airport users and local businesses. The advisory group met one time on June 23, 2005, in an all-day session. Experts in their fields, Oregon land use attorney Mark Greenfield and land use planner Frank Angelo assisted this group in understanding airport state planning rules and regulations and the land use planning process in general.
The Technical Advisory Group recommended that four agencies - Hillsboro, Washington County, Metro and the Port of Portland - work together to implement these land use recommendations. The recommendations are summarized in the Compatibility Study. The charge of the land use subcommittee is to carry forward the work of the advisory group and to offer policymakers more detailed language for the five regulatory land use recommendations.
The mission of the Hillsboro Airport Issues Roundtable Land Use Subcommittee is:
To engage in a cooperative and comprehensive analysis of the regulatory land use recommendations in the 2005 Hillsboro Compatibility Study Update. Offer policymakers at the city of Hillsboro and Washington County specific language to be utilized in the implementation of these recommendations.
The subcommittee has completed the draft language for an Airport Zone. The next step will be for the full HAIR committee to provide their recommendation to City of Hillsboro and Washington County policymakers for consideration of the two work products. The city's timeline allows for consideration in 2008, while the county won't begin this process until 2009.
The Airport Zone would regulate airport and airport-related industrial, commercial, and other uses that may occur within and beyond the 2025 airport planning horizon. The Airport Zone would be a separate zoning district that applies only within the airport property boundary and would define the specific airport-dependent, airport-related and airport-compatible uses that could occur within that boundary. The Airport Zone will need to be consistent with the Airport Overlay Zone.
The Airport Overlay Zone will be broader in scope geographically as well as substantively. It will reach off-airport to address land use compatibility issues related to future development.