FAA Agrees to Study Local Requests for Airport Mitigations

The issues of flight paths, aircraft noise and runway expenses have long concerned residents of the towns and neighborhoods near the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport, and now those concerns have been officially broached to high ranking officials of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for study – and hopefully, action.

Representatives from Congressman Mike Thompson’s office as well as Sonoma County Supervisor Mike McGuire, Windsor Mayor Debora Fudge, and Jon Stout, manager of the Sonoma County Airport, flew to Seattle on March 8. There they meet with officials at FAA regional headquarters to address concerns about the upcoming Airport Safety and Improvement project.

The Airport Safety and Improvement Project is one of the largest economic development investments in the County in recent history.

4-1 to expand Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport, a $84 million project that would build an additional 5,000 feet of runway, add up 21 flights a day and build a new passenger terminal. The project will allow for additional flights into the Airport as well as spur increased economic activity throughout the County.

Community concerns have centered upon the flight paths as well as the impacts of noise from additional future commercial flights, which would use a longer runway in the plan and thus, presumably, larger and louder aircraft.

In response to these concerns, McGuire and Thompson convened the meeting, and an agreement emerged that will provide mitigations for those communities surrounding the Airport.

At the meeting with the FAA, Supervisor McGuire and Mayor Fudge shared the concerns of Windsor and North County residents about the current flight path, which is situated over the Town of Windsor. The FAA agreed to study the following concepts over the next 18 – 24 months:

• Evaluate the possibility of moving the commercial flight path away from the Town of Windsor and over less populated areas.
• Implementation of Optimized Profile Descent (OPD) and higher elevated approaches for landings – a proven technique used in similar airports. Commercial flights would be required to stay up in the air higher when approaching the Sonoma County Airport, thus reducing noise impacts. OPD also saves fuel, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and costs to the airlines.
• Required Navigation Performance Approaches using equipment that enables commercial pilots to approach with a narrower and consistent landing pattern that mitigates fly-over of neighborhoods, thus reducing sound impacts.
• Evaluate the flight pattern that private pilots use while flying into Sonoma County Airport in clear weather conditions.

The process will include establishing a high level FAA working group to evaluate potential mitigation concepts such as those above, fully test out the concepts, thoroughly evaluate potential environmental considerations, and work with the commercial carrier for implementation strategies.

Also, there will be ample public engagement activities once the draft recommendations are completed which is expected in 18 - 24 months. Final recommendations will then be developed incorporating public comments. The County of Sonoma and the FAA will be working together throughout the process.

Supervisor McGuire, who has spearheaded the effort to address community concerns since becoming a County Supervisor two years ago, commented, “This is a huge win for all involved, especially the residents of Windsor.  We are advancing the safety and improvement projects and the many jobs it will create while protecting the quality of life for the communities that neighbor the Airport.”

"This is great for Windsor residents,” Mayor Fudge said. “As Mayor, I’ve convened two meetings in the past 8 years with the FAA and the Sonoma County Airport manager, with help from Congressman Thompson’s office. We believe those efforts have laid the foundation for the successful working relationship we have with the FAA today."

Congressman Mike Thompson said, “The airport project is going to put people back to work and make Sonoma County more accessible to business. As we move forward, I will continue working with county leaders and the FAA to make sure our community’s needs are heard and addressed.”