Quote:
Originally Posted by SDCAL
The question that comes to mind here, what is the definition of “close proximity to the airport.” Does the FAA have a specific distance? Is the far East Village (east of Petco Park) still considered close proximity? How far are Boston and LV’s downtowns from their airports, are they as close as SD’s downtown to our airport?
It seems that after a certain radius, there should be a definable area not just for us but for cities across the US as to what is considered close enough to an airport to have height restrictions.
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I am gravely simplifying all this. Of course there are rules and regulations and standards.
To be very specific, the FAA's guidelines are covered in Federal Regulations 49 CFR Part 77, or just Part 77 to those of us in the business. Part 77 lays out a series of "imaginary surfaces" to determine navigational hazards. Think lines drawn in the air, laying out various sectors.
The exact distances involved vary depending what landing aircraft approach speed the airport is able to accept, what level of bad weather is it designed to handle (instrument means bad weather capable, precision means
really bad weather capable). For reference KSAN can handle class D approach speeds, has a precision instrument runway approach from the west, and a non-precision instrument approach from the east.
But then that's a lot of info to keep in your head, so there's a map where we've done all the math for you
These are the height limits the FAA would greatly prefer. Notice that to keep them, San Diego would have to lop off the top of Mission Hills and Point Loma, which is a big reason the FAA wanted San Diego to replace KSAN in the 1950s and 60s (as did San Diego itself, but between all the military bases we never found a good place to put it).
Just a note, all these heights are above Mean Sea Level, so unless you're building a mid-rise in the middle of the bay you'll have even less than the 166.8'.
So yes, in FAA terms East Village and Petco Park would be considered in "close proximity" to the airport. In terms of who has the closest downtown, us or Boston/Vegas, that's a trickier question to answer than it might first appear. At these sort of distances it really depends from what spot on the airport you measure from, and where you consider the border of "downtown". In general I'd say all three are at roughly the same distance.