Are planes getting lower? Louder? The controversy around the shifts at Los Angeles International Airport in direction and altitude of airplanes have been a topic of heated conversation in Culver City for several years. The lack of required transparency by the Federal Aviation Administration has led to Culver City joining with Los Angeles, asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene, and the LAX Roundtable took up the discussion of alternative procedures at it’s most recent July 10, 2019 meeting.
The ‘Community Proposal Regarding North Downwind Arrival Procedure Altitudes’ was introduced by Brian Clark who briefed the Roundtable on the Community Proposal created by Quiet Skies LA. The proposal includes two options that are intended to provide noise relief for residents of Malibu, Santa Monica Canyon, Santa Monica, Mar Vista, Culver City, West Adams, Downtown L.A., and other areas.
“Option A increases the altitudes of aircraft on the North Downwind Arrival Route and extends the route farther east to San Bernardino. Option B creates a new arrival procedure that directs aircraft to follow a different path than the North Downwind Arrival Route to join the final approach in the San Bernardino area.”
Roundtable member Clark indicated that this proposal would not impact other areas located farther east as the proposed altitudes would be much higher, and that the goal is to obtain support from the Roundtable and others on this proposal to move forward.
David Reich from the City of Los Angeles Mayor’s Office indicated that the Mayor supports this proposal and suggested to have a feasibility study conducted prior to submitting to the FAA for consideration.
The Roundtable members agreed that the proposal should be technically reviewed before they take any action on it.
Chairman Schneider announced that LAWA agreed to hire a consultant to review the Community Proposal. Member Robilotta suggested the consultant should have both an environmental and operational background.
Member Bow noted that the proposal shifts noise to communities that are not on the Roundtable and suggested reaching out to the San Gabriel Council of Governments and the Gateway Cities Council of Governments to inform them of this proposal and obtain feedback.
After discussion of this item, Bow made a motion to request that LAWA hire a third party consultant to provide an environmental and operational review of the Community Proposal regarding increasing the North Downwind Arrival altitudes and creating an alternative route for the North Downwind arrivals.
The motion was seconded by Clark and passed unanimously by the Roundtable.
From the minutes of LAX Roundtable
Not clarified in this report is that Quiet Skies LA member Dianne Lawrence objected to Roundtable member Bows suggestion to reach out to communities further east first. She was concerned that this would prolong and delay the process of approval by the Roundtable unnecessarily. They would not be impacted by noise as the planes would be too high up. This suggestion was not approved at this meetinug.