TagNinth Circuit Court of Appeals(39)

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unpublished memorandum decision in City of Burien v. Daniel K. Elwell and Federal Aviation Administration, No. 18-71705, filed November 27, 2019. The court partially agreed with Burien that the FAA acted arbitrarily and capriciously under NEPA (42 U.S.C. §§ 4321 et seq.) by approving the ‘Burien 250 Turn’ procedure —

The City of Burien challenged the FAA's approval of a flight procedure that automatically routes southbound turboprop planes westward after takeoff from Seattle-Tacoma Airport, concentrating low-flying aircraft noise over the city. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the FAA acted improperly by failing to consider all reasonably foreseeable future actions at Sea-Tac when it assessed whether the procedure's cumulative environmental and noise impacts warranted a full environmental review. The court agreed with Burien that the FAA's use of a categorical exclusion to bypass that review was arbitrary and capricious under the National Environmental Policy Act.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals partly sided with the City of Burien in its challenge against the FAA's approval of a flight procedure that routes low-flying turboprop planes westward over Burien after takeoff from Seattle-Tacoma Airport. The court found that the FAA acted arbitrarily and capriciously by failing to consider all reasonably foreseeable future actions at Sea-Tac when evaluating whether the procedure's cumulative environmental and noise impacts required a full environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The FAA had attempted to exempt the procedure from such review by classifying it as a 'categorical exclusion,' but the court determined that the agency's cumulative impacts analysis was incomplete.

The City of Burien filed a petition for review against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in June 2018, challenging an FAA decision in what is believed to be a dispute related to air traffic and noise policy near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The case went through mediation, multiple briefing schedule extensions, and motions to supplement the record before the FAA filed its answering brief in March 2019. Key filings include Burien's opening brief submitted in late November 2018 and the FAA's certified administrative record, reflecting a formal appellate challenge to federal aviation authority decisions affecting the Burien community.

A federal appeals court denied a challenge by Oregon residents and an aviation watchdog group against a new runway project at Hillsboro Airport near Portland, Oregon. The court found that the Federal Aviation Administration acted properly in concluding the project would have no significant environmental impact, including only a minimal effect on air traffic and air quality. This case, a follow-up to a 2011 ruling, may be relevant to discussions of how environmental reviews are conducted for airport expansion projects in the Pacific Northwest.

Selected docket entries for Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals case 17-70438, City of Burien v. Federal Aviation Administration and Michael P. Huerta. Covers petition for review filed 02/14/2017 through 05/17/2018, including extensive mediation conference schedule, multiple extensions of administrative record filing deadlines, and repeated amendments to briefing schedule for petitioner’s opening brief and respondent’s answering