The Goleta City Council voted unanimously Tuesday evening to send a letter to the Santa Barbara City Council expressing the need for an Airport Aircraft Noise Action Plan.
“Everyone knows airport noise is a growing concern in our community, especially those early morning and late evening and nighttime aircraft operations that are particularly disruptive to our residents,” said Anne Wells, Goleta’s advance planning manager. “We receive a lot of complaints, and they are escalating.”
Because the airport is in Santa Barbara’s jurisdiction, the letter requests the Santa Barbara council’s commitment to creating an Airport Aircraft Noise Action Plan, as well as requesting an implementation schedule for the plan, Wells said.
During the past couple years, Goleta residents have repeatedly expressed their concerns and complaints regarding airport noise and pollution at council meetings, and in early December, a public workshop was held for residents to express these concerns directly to Santa Barbara Airport Director Chris Hastert, who said he was “open to all ideas.”
“I would say to the Santa Barbara City Council that we implore you to hear our residents’ concerns and to respond to them as if they were your own residents,” Goleta Councilman Kyle Richards said.
According to the staff report, city staff has been meeting with Santa Barbara Airport staff to explore different ideas and steps to address the noise impacts.
The letter, which was discussed and edited during the Goleta City Council’s Tuesday meeting, laid out several strategies that have been mentioned during public workshops or the meetings with airport staff.
“This letter really tries to encapsulate some of the commitments that were made by airport staff and discussion items that are worth exploring further to get to the bottom of some of these noise issues,” aviation consultant Nick Johnson said. “But also hopefully working toward some real solution toward some of the more difficult noise problems that are really plaguing residents of the city of Goleta.”
Some of the strategies include incentivizing airline compliance with noise abatement flight paths, discussing the noise issues and noise abatement compliance when negotiating with airlines, exploring the option of a voluntary aircraft noise curfew, and giving the City of Goleta a permanent seat and voice on the Santa Barbara Airport Commission, particularly for decisions that would directly impact Goleta.
Other suggestions in the letter involve more outreach efforts to pilots to deliver information on preferred noise-mitigating measures, as well as analyzing departure and arrival procedures, the fleet mix at the airport — and discouraging older, louder aircraft use — and data on aircraft particulate emissions.
The full draft letter with the strategies can be found within the staff report for the Goleta City Council meeting.