Johnson County held a public workshop Thursday, Oct. 6 at New Century AirCenter to give area residents an update on plans for the airport site. Kory Lewis, principal for Coffman Associates Airport Consultants, led visitors through the county’s multiphase process of updating the comprehensive compatibility plan. “The airports combined have over a billion dollar economic impact for the county,”he said. “People work here and spend money here.” Lewis said they wanted to protect the public from noise but were not determining the impacts with noise. “Our goal is to have a safe airport,”he said. Lewis said the county can’t tell an aircraft where they can and can’t fly under FAA rules.

“The county doesn’t have control,”he said.

Lewis said the county also can’t authorize expansion of the airport.

“We are responsible for a safe airport and coordinating with citizens and developers to promote land use compatibility,”he said. The county’s airport land use comprehensive compatibility plan has not been updated since 1996.

Lewis said Kansas and the U.S. have land use ordinances and zoning but the U.S. has no land use authority. Operations have increased at New Century and decreased at the Johnson County Executive Airport, and development has continued to occur, he said.

The county is using the public workshops to help create land compatibility guidance and will have three more meetings before the county commissioners approve.

Lewis said the public workshops are laying the groundwork for future updates land comprehensive compatibility land use plans using current guidance.

“Right now we use a paper map,” he said. “We need to update to electronic mapping. The FAA just realized a review was needed. The guidance will help formulate new policies related to noise, wildlife, birds, concentrations of people and runway protection.”

Lewis said the data collection phase is a 12 to 14 month process.