Regional Airport Planning Committee (RAPC)
To download the Materials for the September 25th RAPC meeting, please click here.
RAPC is representative of a broad range of stakeholders in the region - it serves as an investigative panel and advisory body to its governing boards as well as
a forum for public discussion on regional aviation issues
Airports are an important part of our lives and our economy - they play a critical role in the transport of goods and people in the region. Planning how to accommodate changes within our airport system is a major issue in the San Francisco Bay Area. Over the past decade, population and economic growth fueled the need for more airport capacity while land use constraints and environmental issues significantly complicated the potential for airport expansion. The 2000 Regional Airport System Plan (RASP) predicted that the Bay Area's three major airports: San Francisco (SFO), Oakland (OAK), and San Jose (SJC), needed expansion and recommended studying a new runway. Prohibitively high environmental and financial costs led RAPC to examine other alternatives, including technological and management solutions to handling more flights. Since then, changing flight markets and fuel costs have greatly impacted the Bay Area's aviation system.
Updating the Regional Airport System Plan (RASP)
In July 2006, RAPC adopted a work plan to update the 2000 Regional Airport System Plan (RASP). In 2006 and 2007, RAPC held a series of meetings, public forums, and panel discussions with aviation experts, consultants, the FAA, and the airline industry to discuss strategies and generate data for the RASP update. In 2008, a consultant team began work with RAPC to forecast future flight demand and analyze several different alternatives for improving regional aviation services. These include using new technologies or management strategies at the existing three major commercial airports, expanding operations at regional or outer-region airports (such as Stockton, Monterey, and Sacramento), or diverting traffic to High-Speed Rail.
As part of this work, ABAG has assessed land uses around the region's smaller airports in order to determine their noise and safety compatibility. In addition to airport staff and consultants, a Task Force and three Working Groups: Air Traffic Control, Demand Management, and Forecasting, are participating in the RASP Analysis.
To see a presentation on Bay Area flight trends and forecasts, click here.
To review all of RAPC's work thus far, visit MTC's Regional Airport Planning page.
Climate Change and Aviation
Climate change may potentially be the most important long term issue for airports and the aviation industry. At the federal, state and local level, policy makers are deciding how to implement near term strategies to decrease green house gases and plan for rising Bay water levels. RAPC will include new and developing climate change strategies for aviation in the update of the Regional Airport System Plan.
  RAPC is a joint effort of three regional agencies: MTC, ABAG, and BCDC. RAPC meets every other month at the MetroCenter Auditorium in Oakland. To increase public participation in regional airport planning, RAPC created a RASP Task Force that meets regularly in San Francisco. A RASP Website is forthcoming. For more information and to see upcoming meetings, please visit the RAPC website at the Bay Conservation and Development Commission. (http://www.bcdc.ca.gov/index.php?cat=53)
Protecting the Bay Area's Aviation Resources - The Land Use Connection
This Guide was prepared as part of the RASP to serve as a resource for the general public and elected officials who will be addressing future land-use proposals near airports. It explains why airports are, and will continue to be, important to the Bay Area and provides a "checklist" of key questions local decision-makers and the public should consider when evaluating new land uses for compatibility with established airport noise and safety criteria. The guide also lists key sources of information and contacts to help make informed decisions.
ABAG contact: Marisa Cravens marisac@abag.ca.gov
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