The Lancaster Zoning Board of Appeals Thursday grappled with whether the nearly 50-year-old Buffalo-Lancaster Airport at 4343 Walden Ave. constitutes a nonconforming use under zoning code.

The Zoning Board also sought to determine whether neighboring residents have a legitimate grievance in contesting expansion plans at the airport.

About 70 people attended the zoning review in Lancaster Town Hall, including residents who are against plans to expand the airport and pilots who fly in and out of the airport and support expansion plans.

Thursday’s zoning review was requested by attorney Arthur Giacalone, who is representing the Safe Aviation Coalition of Lancaster, made up of neighboring residents who complain that they have been burdened by noise from low-flying planes using the airport. They also charge that the facility has already been expanded beyond its legal limits.

Giacalone argued that, unlike the rest of the town’s residents who on occasion may experience planes from Buffalo Niagara International Airport flying over their homes, his clients are under constant assault from planes using the far smaller Buffalo-Lancaster facility.

“Many of the planes coming on and off the runway are training . . . so they’re doing touch-and-goes. They’re constantly going up and coming back down,” he said.

Meanwhile, Larry Boyland, an attorney for the airport, insisted that, contrary to assertions by neighboring residents, there has been no decrease in property values in neighboring residential areas and that residents are “experiencing a general cost of having an airport in their neighborhood.

“They have brought the aggravation on themselves,” Boyland said.

Giacalone also argued that, under the town zoning ordinances, the airport is a nonconforming use, which means the use is not permitted within the zoning district. As such, the most it can be allowed to expand is by a total 25 percent.

However, Giacalone said facilities at the airport have expanded from 10 hangars to 44, and the runway has already been lengthened from 2,300 feet to 3,200 feet. He said the airport’s owners have received federal funds to expand the runway even further — to 5,500 feet.