The Court affirmed the conclusion of the Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearing Board (GMHB) that Airway Height's ordinances allowing residential development near the city's airforce base violated Washington State's Growth Management Act (GMA). The court adopted the GMHB’s definition of “incompatible development” as a “development that is incompatible with a military installation's ability to carry out its current or future missions.”
The 2009 Fairchild Air Force Base Joint Land Use Study (JLUS) was a voluntary collaborative planning effort between local communities, federal officials, residents, business owners, and the military. The JLUS identified residential development near military airport bases as concerning because it brought objections from residents about safety, noise, and light pollution, which endangered the long term viability of the military airport bases. Washington State also had passed a statute, Washington State's Growth
Management Act, which aligns with the conclusions of the JLUS study. The City of Airway Heights adopted ordinances to approve residential development near the local Airforce Base. The Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearing Board invalidated the ordinances because it found they violated the Washington State's Growth Management Act.