The fight to change flight routes

On Tuesday, Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport (STS) hosted a lecture and workshop to address and raise community concerns about aircraft noise.

While some of you may never notice the aircraft noise, over the past year new and changed routes to and from STS – now at its peak there are 21 flights per day – have certainly disrupted the peaceful lives of some West County residents.

Take Sandy Reed, a Graton resident who moved to the country to escape the city and the noise. Reed, who says a plane flies right over her house every twenty minutes, is sure her property's price has dropped. Like other participants in the event, she is therefore considering moving.

“If I wanted to live in San Bruno, I would have bought a house in San Bruno,” Reed said, referring to the San Francisco suburb that borders the Bay Area’s busiest airport, SFO.

Sandy and others were looking for answers and hope tonight. But when they saw the proposed routes from Cignus, a consulting firm the airport had contracted with to conduct an “approach feasibility study,” they were no longer reassured.

For example, the proposed Runway 2 route, shown above in orange, appeared to many in attendance to be identical to the existing route, even though Cignus had suggested changing the route's elevation.

“They’re even worse!” Someone screamed as a Cignus advisor tried to reassure them that they were using all the “tools” at their disposal to reduce the impact of each route on the community at large.

“Why does it have to be right over the bridge!” to satisfy another person.

“That’s right above my house!” someone else said.

Those comments echoed throughout the Analy hallway, where dozens of locals were eager to inform STS and Cignus, who were there to answer questions, and a “court reporter” who was there to document complaints.

“They leave until 9 or 10 at night and wake me up at 6:30 in the morning,” said Nancy Frost, who also stands in the way of Runway 2 arrivals.

“It’s so annoying,” Reed said. “I have to hang up or go inside.”

Others were angered by the fact that this event was only about *arrival routes*, not *departure routes like the RREHD or “Redhead” route, which many dismayed locals protested.

However, the main problem that both Cignus and STS airport manager Jon Stout explained is that neither Cignus nor STS has the power to change flight patterns. You can only make recommendations.

The decision-making is solely the responsibility of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which, without informing the airport, changed its flight routes earlier this year.

That's right. The airport is not required to be notified when the FAA changes its routes due to the Airport Noise and Capacity Act, enacted in 1990. For example, according to airport manager John Stout, STS was not notified of the “Redhead” route. According to 5th District Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, who spoke at the start of the event, the county was also not notified of the “Redhead” route change and, like STS, was only made aware of it through complaints from residents.

Patricia Dines, who organized for Community Action Airplane Noise Sonoma County (CAANSC) and created one a warning system To keep concerned residents informed, they say this issue began back in February.

“We experienced a sudden increase in low-level flights over West County,” she said. “This turned our previously quiet homes into airplane zones without considering our needs as stakeholders.”

Changing flight routes is an issue communities across the country are dealing with because they feel their wishes have been ignored by the FAA.

Accordingly The FAA websiteLast year, the FAA received 10,481 aircraft noise complaints from 2,592 people across the United States. 65 percent of these complaints came from 71 people.

Locals like Dines believe that forming a coalition to stand up to the FAA and its employees in Seattle will speed up the process of reevaluating the West County routes, a process that could otherwise take years.

But some aren't so keen on a months- or years-long campaign to get rid of the planes. They only wished they could make them disappear, that tomorrow they could live out their golden years in peace again.

As one local put it, “I don’t want to have to talk to some guy in Seattle!”