July 15th, 2016
1. Select Committee Organizational/Process Matters
a. Meeting Schedule/Location
b. Timeline
c. Definition of Consensus
d. Scope of Work
e. How Do We Describe Our “Asks”?
f. Other, If Any
2. FAA Subject Matter Presentations & Committee Discussion
a. Noise
b. Air Traffic
3. Requests/Recommendations to Forward to the Members of Congress
a. Discussion of Six Solution Groups: FAA Northern California Initiative Feasibility Study
i. SFO Class B Amendment
Adjournment
My family has lived in the same house in the Ventura neighborhood of Palo Alto since 1976. Airplane noise was never a problem for us until NextGen in March, 2015. Suddenly, we were living under a super-highway in the sky. From early in the morning until late at night planes fly over our house as often as every two minutes. They are loud. It is inconceivable to me that the change in noise that we experienced last spring was below the threshold that requires environmental review.
We attended the meeting at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts in late June 28th and heard the FAA representative speak of planes gliding unnoticed in SFO. This man lives in a fantasy world. The planes on the SEFR1 flight path are dropping sharply in elevation as they fly over neighborhood and this is noisy. The planes coming from overseas that are making a U-turn over our neighborhood are banking and also very loud. There is no need for these planes to be flying at such low elevations. We are 23 miles from SFO.
I have reviewed reports from the first working meeting in the Palo Alto City Council Chambers on July 15th. It seems clear that the FAA is not taking our concerns seriously. It is clear that the impact of the new routes on the communities below these super highways was not even a secondary concern. They want us to believe that they have an impossible problem.
Perhaps it’s impossible for their experts. But I’m sure with all the talent we have in Silicon Valley, we can solve this problem and solve it equitably. The City of Palo Alto has hired an expert to analyze this problem. Sky Posse has some excellent suggestions. Flight paths can be moved over the San Francisco Bay.
Please insist that the FAA take advantage of the suggestions already provided to distribute noise and move arrivals over the San Francisco Bay.