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than 5,000 feet in length. It is important to note that actual driving times can vary widely based on factors such as time of day, weather conditions, etc. Eslrrbit IV-1 illustrates the area served by the existing reliever system. St. Paul Downtown, the system's only intermediate airport, provides coverage for most of the central portion of the seven-county metropolitan azea. Aa increase in the azea covered results when the six minor airports aze considered; however, even with coverage from seven airports, the outer portion of the seven-county region is not served by a reliever airport. While the reliever service areas do not provide coverage for the entire seven- county region, they do offer service to the azeas with the heaviest concentrations of people. Even so, many of these relievers, namely Anoka County-Blaine and St. Paul Downtown, aze projected to reach operational demand levels in excess of 80 percent of their available capacity by the end of the planning period. Therefore, while an area may be located within a particular service area, the airport may not have the operational capacity available for additional based aircraft by the end of the planning period. The service azeas of other general aviation airports surrounding the existing seven relievers aze depicted in Exhrbit IV 2 This secondary ring of airports increases the geographic coverage provided by existing system airports; however, large portions of Hennepin and Scott counties aze still outside a 15-minute service area for a minor airport and a 30-minute area for the. system's intermediate airport, St. Paul Downtown. While these azeas aze relatively sparsely populated, the northern portion of Hennepin County and the southeastern portion of Anoka County are currently experiencing rapid development. With St. Paul Downtown, Anoka County-Blaine, and Crystal airports projected to surpass existing capacity, only Gateway North Industrial Airport is left to acrnmmodate excess demand in this azea. While Gateway North can effectively accommodate a portion of the growth in the azea, land envelope and development constraints limit the possibilities at this secondary ring airport. IV-11