News

           On June 28th, 2017, Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo, Congressman Jimmy Panetta, and Congressman Ro Khanna sent a letter to the Cities Association of Santa Clara County requesting their assistance with establishing a long term forum for aircraft noise concerns in the South Bay. 

           In response on August 10th, 2017, the Cities Association of Santa Clara County's Board of Directors unanimously agreed to form an Ad Hoc Committee to create a framework for establishing a Roundtable.  The Ad Hoc Committee will consist of: 

      The comment under the news page said it all:

      Surf Air resumed flying the North Sunnyvale flight path on June 12, 2017 WITHOUT final FAA approval. That move has effectively shifted airplane noise from the Peninsula cities over to Sunnyvale.

      The politicians say there will be NO shifting of airplane noise from one community to another. BUT THE AIRPLANE NOISE HAS BEEN MOVED TO SUNNYVALE FROM THE PENINSULA CITIES.

      This definitely establishes a flight path over Sunnyvale that will almost certainly be used by more and more airplanes, especially since these airplanes will no longer fly over the peninsula cities on their way to San Carlos Airport. Since we have no jurisdictional control over San Carlos Airport, that likely translates to uncontrolled growth as that airport maximizes profit. Since San Mateo County will have effectively shifted the airplane noise over to the alternate community of Sunnyvale, the county will have no reason to curtail growth at that airport - San Mateo County took care of their problem by shifting it to the city of Sunnyvale.

      It appears that San Mateo County and Surf Air have completely out maneuvered Sunnyvale in this matter. Sunnyvale is playing elementary school baseball, while San Mateo county is playing Professional baseball.

Worse yet, San Mateo County Board of Supervisors just approved $1million dollars to be spent to determine ways to mitigate airplane noise for their San Mateo County residents. But who is protecting Sunnyvale??? Seems like we are on our own here, with the city of Sunnyvale spending literally nothing to protect its residents from this noise shifting.

    Once again, the City of Sunnyvale strongly opposes the BVA procedure and we are deeply concerned with the negative effects of Surf Air flight operations over Northern and Southern Sunnyvale, regardless of the BVA.  We believe that Surf Air is  capable of studying and implementing alternate flight paths and/or other mitigations that will reduce the noise impact on our residents.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (FOX 11 / AP) - Three people died and two were injured when a small plane carrying them home from a cheerleading competition nose-dived into two Southern California homes and sparked a major fire, authorities and witnesses said.

On Jan. 21, 2016, we were invited to the Sunnyvale Democratic Party monthly meeting to present our findings about increasing airplane noise issues in Sunnyvale.  A couple members from our group attended the meeting and made a brief presentation to about 30 people there.  The presentation was very well received.  Some people living in north Sunnyvale shared their sufferings from the airplane noises as well and showed support to our movement.  Some people mentioned there are also private jets landing at Moffet airport, which adds to the airplane issue to our area.

During the presentations, questions were asked, especially on what we expect and how we want to solve the problem? 

We are very clear about our expectations:

We want to raise more community awareness and urge FAA to seek a regional solution for airplane noise issues instead of shifting the problem from one community to another. 

Congress District 17 representative and Sunnyvale representative need to be present in any ongoing and future FAA discussion and SFO roundtable discussion.  (Currently Congress district 17 and Sunnyvale were excluded from the above discussions.)

More than two years have passed since the Federal Aviation Administration changed the flight paths in and out of Sky Harbor.

Since then, the City of Phoenix and some of its historic neighborhoods have sued the FAA. It’s been a slow process, but things are moving forward.

When the FAA implemented its satellite based navigation system, called Next Gen, it was supposed to improve safety and efficiency by altering arrival and departure procedures. 

Instead, the changes led to increased noise levels for residents living in central Phoenix and other parts of the Valley. Residents and the city wanted the FAA to revert back to the original flight paths, so they each sued.

The U.S. Court of Appeals has now scheduled oral arguments for March 17. The court will hear both lawsuits.

The City is aware of the recent increased flight activity over parts of Cupertino from various area airports, including Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC), San Francisco International Airport (SFO), and smaller airports such as Palo Alto (PAO) and San Carlos (SQL). This has impacted some Cupertino neighborhoods near the Sunnyvale border.

The City has no direct authority over airspace and is limited in its ability to address resident aircraft noise concerns. However, the City is committed to preserving and enhancing the quality of neighborhoods by maintaining or reducing the levels of noise generated by transportation facilities, including airports. Based on resident complaints, the City will closely monitor actions by the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and their efforts to reroute specific incoming SQL flights over Sunnyvale and parts of Cupertino. With the assistance of Congressman Honda and Santa Clara Supervisor Joe Simitian, the City of Sunnyvale has been actively engaging with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to express concern with this latest action and advocate a more workable, simple solution. Cupertino will join Sunnyvale’s efforts.

To Read more: http://cupertino.org/index.aspx?page=1605

If you have winter issue of "City of Sunnyvale Quarterly Report" on the table, you can find airplane noise issue in page 2:

"The City is working to address the increase in flights over Sunnyvale from area airports.  The City Council hosted a town hall meeting in October to hear from residents and discuss types of air traffic over Sunnyvale, recent changes to flight patterns for arrivals to the San Carlos airport, and the northern approach to Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC).  Congressman Mike Honda, along with representatives from SJC and San Mateo County airports attended. 

Council directed City staff to prioritize efforts to reduce airplane noise and request Sunnyvale representation at FAA decision-making meetings.  The FAA has invited the City to a meeting scheduled for February where a decision will be made on the next steps related to the San Carlos airport Bayside Visual Approach, which diverts an additional leg of Surf Air flights above Sunnyvale. 

The City is also hiring an aviation consultant to help analyze flight data and draft potential alternatives to current flight paths overhead.  The immediate focus will be to address the Bayside Visual Approach and Surf Air flights out of San Carlos. Additional work may include impacts of other flights to and from San Francisco International Airport and SJC.

Visit AirplaneNoise.inSunnyvale.com for more information.  Email airplanenoise@sunnyvale.ca.gov to join an email list and receive updates on this topic."

And for more info on noise issue, please also visit http://savemysunnysky.org

Sunnyvale Airplane Noise ... - Efforts from Residents
AIR TRAFFIC SINGLE-DAY CASE STUDY

The 12-member committee chaired by Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian spent four months analyzing proposals that often divided communities from Santa Cruz to South San Francisco in a tug-of-war over flight paths and waypoints (fixed points that planes must fly over at particular altitudes). In the end, the committee's 44-page report explored a series of ideas ranging from changing nighttime flight hours to rerouting planes along different tracks.

Recommendations on two items, moving the flight path for southern arrivals to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and establishing a minimum altitude for the MENLO waypoint, were the most highly anticipated of the committee's final meeting on Nov. 17.

  

  

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