Air rights , in law, refer to the rights of a landowner to use or develop the space above his or her land. Before the 1900’s, a landowner’s rights to the air over his or her property was understood as reaching to the heavens. However, the meaning of air rights changed with the arrival of air travel.
In the United States, the federal government has claimed the authority to control the airspace over the country. As a result, modern landowners are understood to own only the airspace above their property that they can reasonably use. They generally cannot be prohibited from building a skyscraper on their property. But they have no right to restrict air travel over it.
Local governments can also limit air rights by means of zoning restrictions. Even though a landowner may otherwise be permitted to build a skyscraper on a property, zoning restrictions may prohibit it.
A landowner’s air rights in many ways resemble the rights regarding property on land. For example, building any structure that entered the airspace over a neighboring landowner’s property would be regarded as a trespass . An owner may also sell or lease air rights to others just as a landowner may sell or lease land. For instance, a property owner may sell part of the space over his or her land to a power company so that power lines can be hung.
Air rights increase the value of land. They allow those who can use the airspace to take advantage of it. At the same time, they permit landowners to profit from space not otherwise used. Railroads took early advantage of this ability, selling or leasing the property above railroad tracks to those who could make effective use of it. Since the early 1900’s, many large buildings have been constructed in air rights over railroad tracks. Such buildings include the Merchandise Mart in Chicago , Illinois, and the Terminal Tower in Cleveland , Ohio.
