Federal Aviation Administration
Community Involvement Policy Statement

The first step in meeting the needs of the public is to understand the public’s needs. Community involvement lets the agency know what citizens think about our activities. Through community involvement, we will broaden our information base and improve our decisions.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is committed to complete, open, and effective participation in agency actions. The agency regards community involvement as an essential element in the development of programs and decisions that affect the public.

The public has a right to know about our projects and to participate in our decisionmaking process. To ensure that FAA actions serve the collective public interest, all stakeholders will have an opportunity to be heard. Our goals are:

· To provide active, early, and continuous public involvement;

· To provide reasonable public access to information;

· To provide the public an opportunity to comment prior to key decisions; and

· To solicit and consider public input on plans, proposals, alternatives, impacts, mitigation, and final decisions.

This task will require agency management and staff:

· To identify and involve the public and to consider specific concerns;

· To use public involvement techniques designed to meet the diverse needs of the broad public, including not only interest groups and the general public, but individuals as well;

· To ensure FAA planning and project managers commit appropriate financial and human resources to community involvement;

· To sponsor outreach, information, and educational assistance to help the public participate in FAA planning, programming, and project development activities;

· To ensure key personnel are trained properly in community involvement techniques and methods; and

· To develop and evaluate public involvement processes and procedures to assess their success at meeting our goals.

The goals of community involvement are:

· To promote a shared obligation of the public and FAA decisionmakers in identifying aviation-related concerns and developing and evaluating alternatives to address them; and

· To promote an active public role to minimize potentially adverse community reaction to agency plans that are necessary for safe, effective, and environmentally responsible management of our airspace.