The Romans came up with the idea that if you own land, you also own the space above it all the way up to the sky. But when airplanes came along, the government had to make some rules so that they could fly safely. Now, the government owns the airspace way up high, but people still own the airspace closer to the ground. The Supreme Court found that landowners don’t own the airspace above their property, but they still have some rights to it. This is important for things like solar panels and building height regulations. Local rules can still limit how you can use the airspace above your property. The ownership of airspace above a piece of land is not always clear. In some cases, it is possible to own the airspace separately from the land below it. This can happen through statutory authority, like with condominium ownership. Condominiums allow people to own the airspace above their unit separately from the land. This means that multiple owners can have rights to different parts of the airspace above a piece of land, allowing for mixed-use developments. When a landowner wants to divide their property in the air above it, they need to make sure there is still access and utilities for the new parcel. Some counties treat this as a subdivision, while others do not. Developers want to avoid this process to save time and money, but it can help with issues related to the divided airspace. In South Florida, a building with separate uses and ownership got separate tax numbers for some parts, but not all. The tax appraiser says that existing laws require separate taxes for land and buildings. Airspace without a footprint on the ground can’t be taxed separately, except for condos. The problem arises when a building has different uses like retail, residential, and commercial. This makes it hard to finance each part separately. There might be a new law to fix this issue. Air rights, or the right to build up in the air, are important for development in cities. People are trading air rights for lots of money because they allow for denser development and better views. In some cases, air rights are worth more than the land they’re above. When it comes to building on land, there are rules about how high you can build. But if one piece of land doesn’t use all of its building rights, those rights can be transferred to another piece of land nearby. This can happen if the two pieces of land are combined into one, or if the unused rights are sold to another property. This can be helpful for historic buildings that have limits on how much they can be developed, because it lets the owners of those buildings make money by selling their unused building rights to other properties. Air rights are important for modern development. Developers can sell air rights to make money and build bigger projects. Different cities have their own rules for air rights. There are still some legal issues to figure out. This is an article written by a lawyer in Miami who specializes in real estate law. He discusses the legal aspects of property rights in the airspace above and the subterranean space below a piece of land. He also talks about the development of real estate in Miami. The article was written with the help of a law school graduate.
Source: https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/its-up-in-the-air-air-rights-in-modern-development/
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