By Khalida Sarwari
The airplanes flying over the South Bay have been loud lately, but not loud enough to drown out the complaints of residents from Santa Cruz to Daly City. Santa Clara County elected officials recently took action indicating they are listening to residents’ concerns about increased aircraft noise.
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution on Aug. 25 calling on the Federal Aviation Administration to address these concerns. The resolution specifically asks the FAA to mitigate the aircraft noise at ground level in Santa Clara County and to solicit engagement from the community before flight paths are changed.
“If it does nothing else,” said Supervisor Joe Simitian, “my hope is that this resolution strengthens the hand of our congressional representatives in dealing with the FAA.”
The resolution was proposed by supervisors Simitian and Dave Cortese in response to the increase in air traffic at low altitudes above Santa Clara, San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties.
A number of residents in the West Valley region have been vocal about the issue, among them Charlie Thomson who lives on Vickery Avenue in Saratoga.
“While this problem stretches over at least three counties, it certainly seems severe in our area,” Simitian said. “Just this last weekend I heard from folks in Saratoga, Mountain View and Menlo Park–all in a 24-hour period.”
According to the SFO noise abatement office, Saratoga went from reporting no complaints last year to 20 this year, while Los Gatos went up from three to 5,448. The Los Gatos complaints, however, came from just 167 individuals. It’s possible that the complaints attributed to Los Gatos residents are coming from people who live in the mountains and who have Los Gatos mailing addresses.
According to Simitian’s office, prior to 2013, arriving flights were split into different approaches, where some arrived over land and others over the San Francisco Bay. This strategy dispersed the noise from the aircrafts and prevented any one city from experiencing a disproportionate amount of noise.
Most of the complaints started after the FAA launched a nationwide plan in March to change flight routes, including at San Francisco International Airport. Dubbed NextGen, short for Next Generation Air Transportation System, the plan was aimed at reducing air traffic congestion by directing flights to approach airports along a fixed, narrow “superhighway” that leads them above many mid-peninsula and South Bay cities at altitudes below 5,000 feet. Because the corridors are close to, or directly over, cities such as Santa Cruz and Saratoga, they are responsible for a significant increase in noise, resulting in thousands of unhappy residents.
Simitian has been working closely on the issue with Rep. Anna Eshoo, who represents Saratoga, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno and Lexington Hills. It appears the FAA is at least aware of the problem; representatives from the agency met with local elected officials and community members in Los Gatos in July to hear from them directly. FAA’s western regional director Glen Martin encouraged residents to keep talking to congressional leaders and use them as a conduit for communication.
Link: Supes adopt resolution to urge FAA to deal with aircraft noise
