Polish dilemmas in compensating landowners in the vicinity of airports – black letter law vs. law in action

Abstract

Negative externalities of airport operations, associated mostly with noise, are becoming increasingly onerous to homeowners, as air transport develops. In order to resolve the neighbour conflict, the legislator introduces restricted use areas (RUAs) within which noise levels may be exceeded. In these areas, limitations in the use of land are introduced in order to ensure rational development of land surrounding airports and compensation claims are awarded to landowners. These claims compensate planning restrictions concerning the use of land and costs spent on ensuring sound insulation of buildings. The practical application of provisions on RUAs diverges from their literal content bringing about the compensation of loss without a legal and economic justification and the abandonment of the provisions’ objectives. It is argued that a revision of current practice is required in order to fulfill the legal, social and economic objectives of the regulations in force.