Airport Noise Compatibility Planning

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is issuing this final rule, with request for comments, to amend the regulations implementing airport noise compatibility planning to include amendments made to the authorizing legislation, which is formerly known as the Aviation Safety and Noise Abatement Act of 1979 (ASNA). This final rule incorporates new requirements imposed by laws that amended ASNA. These technical changes are necessary to conform the regulations to amendments set forth in the Vision 100--Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act of 2003 (Vision 100). This final rule also updates the statutory citations in the regulations to reflect the repeal and replacement of ASNA as part of a broad recodification of federal transportation laws in July 1994, and revises the regulations to include the 1987 amendment to ASNA that requires airport sponsors to provide notice and an opportunity for a public hearing before submitting a noise compatibility program to the FAA. To facilitate the availability of documents for inspection by the public, this final rule also updates the addresses of FAA regional offices that have moved since 1989. The final rule also enlarges the minimum scale for noise exposure maps to facilitate FAA's ability to make noise and land use information from noise exposure maps available on the Internet via its Website, pursuant to Vision 100.