Aircraft Noise Meeting with Congresswoman Anna Eshoo & FAA
The meeting with Eshoo and FAA went long, started at 10am, ended at 1pm. In that time, discussion was dominated by SFO air traffic noise and the new air traffic systems that were put in place. One stat that was very interesting is SFO received about ~14K noise complaints last year. In June, they received ~16K, and July will exceed that.
Notes below do not focus on SFO noise discussion – groups attending from PA, Woodside and other areas were in the majority and are focused on those efforts.
Notes:
* About 30+ in attendance, no press
* All towns in our area had mayors or their representatives. Overall It was very well attended by local governments.
* FAA sent 4 people including Glen Martin (western regional administrator) and Elizabeth Ray (VP mission support)
* FAA was there to listen
* Supervisors Horsley & Slocum, Vice Mayor Elizabeth Lewis and Mike Lempres (Atherton) were in attendance, as was Jeff Gee from RWC and Peter Ohtaki from MP. The majority of local elected officials in attendance were from PA.
* Horsley requested that Surf air should be on the topic list for discussion
* Very little time was spent on the Surf Air topic. Both Horsely and Lewis made multiple comments about Surf noise and the additional problems the noise was creating for our communities
* Eshoo mentioned Surf Air in context to it was generating complaints and needed to be dealt with
* Everyone in the room agreed that current noise formulas were antiquated and the FAA needs to update methodologies to calculate aircraft noise footprints and what constitutes acceptable individual aircraft noise maximums
* FAA and Eshoo will be attending the Santa Cruz meeting tonight, which will be similar to the PA meeting
Next Steps
Eshoo made it clear that she expects the FAA to expend energy working with the community on these noise issues. She suggested that one size (noise rules) may not work for all communities across the country.
After Horsley pressed the issue, Martin agreed it was best to take the Surf topic and discuss it in another meeting with local FAA reps present. Horsley agreed to organize that meeting with Martin.
No other actions defined re: Surf Air noise
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