The following initiatives shall be established to preserve Connecticut’s licensed privately owned, publicly used airports which have a paved runway and a minimum of five thousand operations per year: (1) The state shall have the right of first refusal to purchase, via fair market value and state property acquisition procedures, an airport, if that airport is threatened with sale or closure, for the express purpose of preserving the airport; (2) the executive director may acquire the development rights, based on fair market value for such rights, of such airports, provided the airport remains a public airport; (3) the state may fund capital improvements to private airports, in which case the state may fund not more than ninety per cent of the eligible costs and the balance by the sponsor, with budget and priorities to be determined by the executive director, and engineering in accordance with Federal Aviation Administration Advisory Circulars; and (4) the establishment of a new airport zoning category for the airport’s imaginary surfaces as defined by Federal Aviation Regulations and a program to mitigate noise in airport neighborhoods in which the noise exceeds applicable Federal Aviation Administration standards. Such program may be combined with existing energy conservation programs. Funding for such program shall be from available federal resources.