(a) The Board is authorized to approve airport and restricted landing area sites or other air navigation facilities in accordance with rules to be adopted by the Board. Certificates of approval shall be granted for airports and restricted landing areas that were being operated on or before July 1, 1945.

(b) [Redesignated.]

(c) All proposed airports, restricted landing areas, and other air navigation facilities shall be first approved by the Board before they are used or operated. A municipality or person proposing to establish an airport, restricted landing area, or a seaplane landing area shall make application to the Board for a certificate of approval of the site selected and the general purpose or purposes for which the airport, restricted landing area, or seaplane landing area is to be established to ensure that it shall conform to minimum standards of safety and shall serve public interest. A municipality or officer or employee or any person shall not operate an airport, restricted landing area, seaplane landing area, or other air navigation facility for which a certificate of approval has not been issued by the Board.

(d) The application for a certificate of approval of the site selected shall be in writing and substantially describe the property involved and the general purposes for which it is to be acquired and the manner in which the acquisition is asserted to serve the public interest. The application shall designate the names of all owners or persons known to be interested in lands adjoining the property and their residences, if known, and shall contain such further matter as the Board by rule shall determine. The application shall be supported by documentation showing that the proposed facility has received municipal approval. After evaluating the application, the Board shall issue its order giving notice of the time and place of hearing on the application. The applicant shall give notice of the proceedings to all persons owning or interested in adjoining lands by delivery of a true copy of the application and order for hearing by registered or certified mail to the last known address of each of the persons; the notice to be mailed at least 12 days prior to the date of the hearing. Notice of the hearing and a general statement of the purpose shall be published at least once in a newspaper of common circulation in the town where the property described in the application is situated at least two days before the date of the hearing, and a similar notice shall be posted in a public place at least 12 days before the hearing. Upon compliance by the applicant with the foregoing provisions for notice, the Board shall hear the applicant and all parties interested on the question of approval of the site or sites and shall consider and determine whether in the public interest the application ought to be granted. Whenever the Board makes an order granting or denying a certificate of approval of an airport, or a restricted landing area, approval to use or operate an airport or a restricted landing area or other air navigation facility, an aggrieved person may have the decision reviewed on the record by the Superior Court pursuant to Rule 74 of the Vermont Rules of Civil Procedure.

(e) In determining whether it shall issue a certificate of approval for the location of any proposed airport or restricted landing area, the Board shall take into consideration the Agency's recommendations, the proposed facility's location, size, and layout, the relationship of the proposed airport or restricted landing area to a comprehensive plan for statewide and nationwide development, existence of suitable areas for expansion purposes, absence of hazardous obstructions in adjoining areas based on a proper glide ratio, the nature of the terrain comprising the airport location and adjoining areas, the nature of the uses to which the proposed airport or restricted landing area will be put and the possibilities for future development, and shall determine that the use will serve the public interest.

(f) Prior to the beginning of aeronautics operations on the site approved, the owner of the site shall apply to the Board for operational approval of the airport. In granting operational approval, the Board shall take into consideration the Agency's recommendations, the length, width, and smoothness of landing strips, longitudinal and transverse grade of the strips, freedom of the usable area from hazardous soil and surface conditions, absence of hazardous obstructions in approach zones, establishment of a suitable wind direction indicator, and other matters pertinent to the character of operations proposed to be undertaken at the subject airport, and shall determine that the proposed use of the site will serve the public interest.

(g) Unless determined otherwise by the Board, the hearing provisions of subsection (d) of this section shall not apply to helicopter landing areas, ultralight landing areas, and restricted landing areas designed for personal use.

(h) In emergency circumstances, the Agency may suspend temporarily, and in nonemergency circumstances, the Board may revoke both temporarily and permanently any certificate of approval when it shall determine that an airport, restricted landing area, or other air navigation facility is not being maintained or used in accordance with the provisions of this chapter and the rules adopted. A person aggrieved by a temporary suspension issued by the Agency may appeal to the Board within 30 days after the Agency's decision. Unless otherwise ordered by the Board, the temporary suspension shall remain in effect pending final determination of the appeal.

(i) The provisions of subsections (e) to (g) of this section, inclusive, shall not apply to any airport, restricted landing area, or other air navigation facility owned and operated by an agency of the federal government within this State. (Added 1985, No. 222 (Adj. Sess.), § 2; amended 1993, No. 172 (Adj. Sess.), § 4; 1995, No. 60, §§ 29, 30, eff. April 25, 1995; 1995, No. 183 (Adj. Sess.), § 18a, eff. May 22, 1996; 1997, No. 144 (Adj. Sess.), § 21; 2017, No. 113 (Adj. Sess.), § 6.)