The Goleta City Council recently made its picks for representatives on the Airport Noise Working Group created by Santa Barbara. 

The purpose of the committee is to get public input and come up with solutions to mitigate airport noise affecting local residents. 

The working group will have six Goleta residents, two Santa Barbara residents, one Isla Vista resident, four airport employees, one airport commissioner, and one air traffic controller from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Goleta City Council members recommended adding Michael Glick, Leslie Lund, Carrie Johns, Debbie Goodwin, Paul Bowen, and Jeremy Bordofsky. 

Bordofsky said he spends a lot of time at More Mesa and near Patterson Avenue both for work and recreation and consistently deals with loud airplanes flying overhead. 

“A lot of the time they follow their flight path the way they’re supposed to and they don’t come right over the residential areas, but sometimes it seems that they’re really loose with where they’re supposed to go,” Bordofsky said. 

Bordofsky said that Santa Barbara needs good airline service, especially as the local tourism industry continues to grow, but that it shouldn’t come at a cost to residents. 

“I don’t want the growth of the airport to be significantly hindered, but I also want the impact on local quality of life to be mitigated somehow,” Bordofsky.

Lund said that she hopes the working group can come up with better solutions to mitigate noise and pollution. 

“Several people, especially in my neighborhood, are worried about the gas pollution and the long-term impacts of that,” Lund said. 

Lund said she lives near the airport and, like many residents, has grown tired of getting woken up by overhead airplanes at 5:15 a.m. She also said she’s been impressed with efforts made by Christopher Hastert, the airport director, to improve the airport. 

“I think that he’s got such a good start with making it a little bit better and hoping to make it a lot better and trying not to be the bearer of bad news all the time,” Lund said. “I just would like to have some input, or at least find out what’s really going on or help it be more of a positive win-win solution.”

Airport Noise Legislation

On May 16, President Joe Biden signed new aviation policy legislation for mitigating airport noise into law.

Local Congressman Salud Carbajal helped write the bill and secured federal funding and studies for airport noise mitigation for Central Coast airports.

Provisions in the law require the FAA to reduce undesirable aircraft noise; assess how the FAA and local airports can reduce noise for surrounding areas; and encourage cooperation between airports and impacted neighborhoods to reduce disruption.

The FAA is also required to update its noise standards through input from local airports and neighbors.

The bill also reauthorized the Airport Environmental Mitigation Pilot Program for five years to fund grants for projects mitigating airport noise.