Appendix 10. Community Involvement Policy

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 the citizens think about our activities. Though 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 action. 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 decision making process. To ensure that FAA actions serve the collective public interests, all stakeholders will have an opportunity to be heard. Our goals are:

To provides 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 decision.

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 interested 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 development 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 decision makers in identifying aviation-related concern and developing and evaluating alternatives to address them; and
To promote an active public role to minimize potential adverse community reaction to agency plans that are necessary for safe, effective, and environmentally responsible management of our airspace.

Signed by

David R. Hinson

Administrator

Dated: April 17, 1995