Hello neighbors,
If you're concerned about airplane noise, or its effects on property values, health, sleep, and learning, we encourage you to take action quickly:
RECENT NEWS
At the Aug 4 meeting of the Select Committee on South Bay Arrivals, the FAA stated emphatically that the proposed modifications to the current ("SERFR") route (a major source of the airplane noise over LAH) are NOT a restoration of the previously-quiet route ("BSR"):
it would have a new name ("DAVYJ"),
it is a new procedure that would take a full 18-24 months to develop,
it would NOT address the significant increase in the number of planes flying this route over the past 2 yrs (noise has been concentrated into a small area)
it would put these lower, louder planes directly over LAH
In fact, the FAA is refusing to even compare the expected noise level of the new DAVYJ route with the old BSR route: they only want to compare to the much noisier SERFR route they implemented 18 months ago.
As presented, DAVYJ will be lower (and louder) over LAH, Stanford and PA than SERFR now is.
The Select Committee is being pressured by some residents in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Summit areas to endorse the DAVYJ solution. Two advocacy groups based in these areas previously said they would NOT support a change unless it restored the previous altitudes--yet they are now urging the Committee to support this change knowing it would simply shift the problem onto their neighbors to the west.
But it is not hopeless: At the last meeting, two members of the Committee questioned why we were trying to put the new procedure onto the old route instead of trying to find the least disruptive place to put it.
REQUEST FOR HELP
The Select Committee needs to hear from people who are opposed to this change.
I urge each of you to send an email to the members of the Select Committee expressing your concern and urging them to find a true "regional solution" to fix the airplane noise problem instead of moving the increased noise over other people.
Here are some points you may wish to make (please feel free to reword instead of cut-and-paste):
The FAA has said clearly that the proposed DAVYJ route is NOT a "revert back to the old BSR procedure"
It is a NEW procedure with a NEW name and it requires the full 18-24 month development time that ANY new procedure requires;
The altitudes of this new procedure are NOT being raised back to BSR level, and they could even be LOWER THAN SERFR!
SOS-Santa Cruz and "NorCal" groups both said they would not support the FAA proposal unless the higher altitudes were restored yet both groups are now advocating in favor of this proposal!
The FAA refuses to compare the new DAVYJ route to the old BSR route in terms of noise
How can the FAA offer a replacement (DAVYJ) under the guise of noise reduction without comparing to the previous (BSR) baseline?
As Supervisors Simitian and Pine asked at the last SC meeting: "if the FAA is designing a new route, shouldn't we find the best place to put it?"
The FAA says developing the new procedure takes just as long using the historical BSR route as ANY OTHER ROUTE!
We should address the concentration of aircraft noise by using multiple arrivals simultaneously
NextGen has brought more planes over our heads: Either these additional planes should be returned to their prior flight paths (e.g. DYAMD, BDEGA East Leg), or new routes should be created so all communities share the burden fairly.
CONTACT INFO
Here are the email addresses for the Select Committee members and their alternates. You can cut and paste the email addresses into the To: field of your email.
supervisor.simitian@bos.sccgov.org
gcwaldeck@losaltoshills.ca.gov
bruce.mcpherson@co.santa-cruz.ca.us
john.leopold@co.santa-cruz.ca.us
greg.scharff@cityofpaloalto.org
bgrassilli@cityofsancarlos.org
Thank you,
Quiet Skies Los Altos Hills