1 From: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2022 11:12 AM
To: City Clerk Group
Subject: FW: AIRPORT NOISE (AND OTHER) ISSUES
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t for public comment for the 8/16/22 city council meeting. Thanks From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2022 8:41 PM
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Subject: AIRPORT NOISE (AND OTHER) ISSUES
Hi All,
I am writing to request that the Santa Barbara City Council and Airport Commission mitigate the noise, pollution and safety issues relative to current airport use and proposed airport expansion.
First, I want to address the comment that most people make whenever I raise these issues, that I chose to live ‘right next to’ an airport so just deal with it. My house is not ‘right next to’ the airport, it is over 2 miles from the end of the runway which is ample distance for the planes to bank away from the residential areas plus when I bought my house (1980s) the recommended flight path directed flights over the vacant bluffs and ocean so we rarely had direct, loud flyovers and there were no regularly scheduled flights between 10pm and 8am. On the rare occasions that a plane flew directly overhead (day or night), we would call the noise complaint hotline.
The second myth I want to debunk is “double pane windows”. We live in an area where most people do not need AC and simply leave the windows open for the cool ocean breeze. Once you even slightly open a double pane window it does next to nothing to mitigate noise. Even fully closed, dual pane glass is no panacea.
Airport flight patterns particularly landing and takeoff over dense residential areas create a hazardous and nuisance condition. If possible, flights should be routed over open spaces (like the vacant bluffs and ocean) and not directly over the dense residential areas. Flights over the dense residential areas best case cause problems with noise and people’s ability to enjoy their property in peace, but also cause health and safety problems of pollution, lack of sleep, and safety in the event of an aircraft accident or malfunction. Lack of sleep can cause accidents (for example falling asleep when driving or operating equipment) and can also lead to other types of health issues. Air pollution can have long and short term adverse health effects and can exacerbate preexisting conditions.
Of course, everyone understands there are issues with having to make emergency landings or landings in foggy weather that would make it impossible to avoid dense residential areas, but the default route for flights should be planned in a way that avoids residential areas to the greatest extent possible.
The current noise abatement procedure and recommended flight plan somewhat addresses this issue to the east side of the airport by turning the recommended flight path out over the bluffs and the ocean. This is also HOW IT USED TO BE 2 to the west of the airport over Ellwood in previous SBA noise abatement procedures in that the recommended flight path turned out over the Ellwood bluffs and the ocean thus avoiding the residential area. In the current noise abatement procedure this turning of the flight path has been eliminated and no effort is made to avoid flying directly over Ellwood. This causes an obvious problem for the residents especially in light of the frequency of flights during the day and especially the newly added regularly scheduled late night/early morning flights (1145pm and 515am). In previous years there were NO regularly scheduled late night/early morning flights at all (10pm‐8am) and even the flights during the day banked out over the bluffs/ocean so noise in the neighborhood was not an issue. Most of us had the noise complaint hotline (805‐967‐1900) on “speed dial” and we would only need to use it when a plane DIDN’T bank out over the ocean and instead just flew low, loud and straight right over the homes. Since the noise abatement procedure stopped encouraging pilots to bank over the bluffs/ocean, the flights straight over the homes during the day are so frequent that there is no point in calling the hotline every time a plane flies over or one would be on the phone all day so people have just stopped bothering to call.
Additionally, these issues only get magnified by the proposed airport expansion which makes it even more important that they be addressed.
Other airport issues include:
Sometimes small private jets actually seem much louder than the large commercial planes so they also need to be well regulated.
It doesn’t seem that SBA is making any meaningful attempt to inform carriers or pilots of the noise mitigation procedures. I’ve heard from air traffic controllers who seem to have no knowledge of the procedures and/or don’t take them seriously.
There should be NO regularly scheduled flights between 10pm and 8am. If flights over residential areas occur during this time relentlessly day after day 24/7, people become sleep deprived which creates a health and safety issue.
In the modern internet/covid age, SBA Commission meetings (like other government meetings) should be conducted on Zoom so the public can reasonably attend.
Total number of flights near residential neighborhoods should be regulated to a reasonable level to ensure that residents can use and enjoy their homes.
By not mitigating negative issues related to the airport, property values are affected. And this is not just in the most affected neighborhoods. Just like a rising tide raises all boats, a dropping tide lowers all boats. Having the negative effects go unaddressed lowers property values for all residents.
Obviously, these issues can and should be effectively mitigated. Other much larger/busier airports do it. For example, John Wayne airport in Orange County prohibits commercial departures between 10pm and 7am (8am on Sundays), LAX between 10pm and 7am use the inner runways and taxiways for all operations to lessen community noise impacts, all commercial aircraft arriving between midnight and 630am must approach from over the ocean unless otherwise for safety reasons, etc. The SB City Council and SBA Commission can certainly put in a greater effort to be good neighbors. As previously stated, these issues only get magnified by the proposed airport expansion which makes it even more important that they be addressed BEFORE any additional fli ghts are planned or scheduled so that the mitigation is in place and working BEFORE any proposed expansion takes place. The sooner the better.
Thank you,
Mike Glick
Ellwood Beach