This is my first post in the e-democracy forum, but my husband and I have been
living in Powderhorn for three years.
My neighbors and I have been talking about the high volume of really loud,
really low-flying aircraft all summer. We assumed it was a runway closure
issue. But I had a feeling that this was somehow different than it was back in
'07, when we first moved in and there was a long runway closure. These planes
seemed somehow louder, lower altitude, and more frequent.
So I did some research. And what I found suggests that this situation might be
permanent. Minneapolis is one of five cities that approved a new flight plan
from the FAA back in mid-May of this year, called "NextGen." It's designed to
streamline and control aircraft, in part, to avoid what the FAA refers to as
"noise sensitive" areas. They've been directing very low altitude departures
over areas they consider "less noise sensitive" because it's easier for
low-altitude departures to communicate with the control tower than it is for
arrivals or higher-altitude departures. They need this good communication in
order to streamline as much air traffic as possible over these "less noise
sensitive" areas in order to avoid the "noise sensitive" neighborhoods.
What would make our densely populated residential neighborhood "less noise
sensitive" than others? There are a few possibilities--there are formulas for
calculating noise sensitivity. They include things like the presence of other
noise-creating factors, like a freeway and an industrial corridor (we have both
in South Minneapolis). There are some formulas that also consider multifamily
dwellings (apartments) to be less noise sensitive than single-family homes.
I can provide any information you would like to see--I've put together over a
dozen documents from the FAA and other sources. My email is
<email obscured>.
Regards,
Sarah Rattanavong-Wash