Cut the Noise: City of Santa Barbara Responds to Goleta’s Airport Concerns
Santa Barbara Airport and Both Cities Will Work Toward Shared Goal of Decreasing Noise Impacts
Following a long history of noise complaints from residents living directly under the flight paths of airplanes arriving or departing from the Santa Barbara Airport, the City of Goleta hosted a public workshop last December, where the Goleta City Council, airport staff, and members of the community brainstormed possible strategies to address noise impacts.
In January, the Goleta City Council and Mayor Paula Perotte wrote a letter to the City of Santa Barbara, urging Santa Barbara’s council to support an “airport noise action plan” so that both cities can continue to work together with the Santa Barbara Airport to finally tackle the issue. On Tuesday, the Santa Barbara City Council will discuss its response to Goleta’s letter to figure out which methods could work to mitigate the noise, and which would have to be done with the help of other agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The airport, which borders the City of Goleta but was annexed as Santa Barbara municipal property in the late 1950s, has gotten busier each year, growing to more than a million passengers per year. Now with plans to expand and increase the number of flights, the residents on either side of the runways are making some noise themselves in an attempt to get the city governments to help.
In the letter to the city of Santa Barbara, Perotte and the Goleta council suggest 13 different strategies that could be utilized to address the noise. Some of these suggestions include increasing flights in lesser-used flight paths over the open spaces of Ellwood-Devereux and More Mesa; aligning with the National Business Aircraft Association’s noise-abatement program; exploring a “voluntary noise curfew”; and amending the Santa Barbara Airport Commission Charter to give a Goleta representative a permanent seat in airport decisions.
“Thank you again for this opportunity to collaboratively address important airport aircraft noise impacts that directly affect the Goleta community,” the letter reads. “Together, we will find the necessary solutions that will support Airport operations while protecting the Goleta community from excessive and disruptive noise.”
On Tuesday, the Santa Barbara City Council is set to approve its official response to Goleta. In the draft response, Mayor Randy Rowse writes that the City of Santa Barbara “fully supports the implementation of an aircraft noise action plan.”
The letter breaks down the 13 proposed strategies into three sections — those that can be addressed through a planning study on airport noise compatibility (which would cost about $1.2 million, but could be funded partially through federal grants); those that can be addressed by a working group focused on airport noise; and those that don’t fall under the purview of either a study or a work group.
But, Rowse writes in the response, “it is essential to acknowledge that there are certain limitations to the power of our city council when it comes to making changes regarding noise or timing of aircraft flights. Many of these decisions fall under the jurisdiction of federal regulations and the FAA.”
Despite those limitations, Rowse says the City of Santa Barbara is looking forward to “initiating the noise action plan and working together on addressing noise concerns through the strategies discussed above.”
“We value the partnership between our cities and remain optimistic about the positive impact we can achieve through collaborative efforts,” he wrote.
The Santa Barbara City Council is expected to approve the response during Tuesday’s council meeting.
