Land Use Plan for Houston's Intercontinental Airport

The methods of developing a complete Master Plan for Land Use at Houston’s new Intercontinental Airport are described. The airport offers Houston, Tex., a service not available elsewhere in the city-access to air transport for passengers, express, and freight. The basic premise of the land use development program is that any enterprise that can use this service to good advantage and to a sufficient degree (and which is not otherwise excluded by environmental restrictions or reservations for a higher priority use) should be permitted to obtain designated space on the airport site. Investigations conducted, including contacts with 25 major airports in the country, show that present and future requirements for land are functions of (1) growth of airline support operations; (2) positive action by industry toward physical relocation at airport industrial parks; and (3) provisions by airport management of the physical facilities needed for industrial or other uses, reasonable lease rates, and assurance that environmental standards will be maintained. Although only the future can determine the accuracy of the plans developed, the project serves as a demonstration of the role of engineers in Master Planning.