PUBLICATION: The Atlanta Journal
DATE: December 13, 1997
SECTION: Local News; Pg. 10E
BYLINE: Gary Hendricks
DATELINE: Atlanta, Georgia
The Atlanta Journal reports that a committee advising Hartsfield International Airport took a preliminary vote Friday against expanding the present airfield, but kept three options for handling growth on the table. Only one of those three calls for a sixth runway ---and it would be built on the north side of the airport.
Made up of government officials, business leaders and citizens, the airport Master Plan Coordinating Committee has this dilemma: Juggling the often-competing interests of keeping Hartsfield among the world's busiest airports while ensuring quality of life for nearby residents who'd feel the brunt of longer runways, more noise and dislocation, the report says. "There is no concept on those boards Clayton County will accept," says Clayton County Commission Chairman Crandle Bray in the article.
According to the report, the committee is looking at a plethora of options ---new runways, terminals or gates ---for how Hartsfield will look in the year 2015, when the annual number of passengers is expected to have soared from 63 million to 121 million. Residents of Atlanta's Southside for years have complained that they pay the cost for the airport's fueling the metro region's economy.
The report goes on to say that despite the wariness of the committee, airport officials believe they can persuade its members to endorse some kind of expansion. "The community really feels burned by the onion-skin approach (in the past), where one thing was put on top another," said Airport General Manager Angela Gittens, in the article.
According to the article, Gittens said the vote reflected a precautionary concession to communities surrounding the airport. "I think it is a problem of doing what is safe," she said. The committee has until next spring to make its final recommendation to the airport, which can veto or alter it. The final say will come from the Atlanta City Council and the mayor. Any future construction plans first would have to undergo state and federal scrutiny.
The article describes what the 40-member committee recommended other than a "no build" scenario. Two of the three plans are the least intrusive of the expansion scenarios. All would extend the fifth runway, serving commuter traffic, which opens in 2002. Option 1: Five runways, a new concourse adjacent to a new eastside terminal and close-in parking. Cost estimate: $ 1.5 billion. Option 2: A more expensive version of the first option, putting the new concourse adjacent to the fifth runway. Cost estimate: $ 1.6 billion. Option 3: A sixth runway north of the current airport boundaries in the College Park-East Point-Hapeville corridor, two new concourses and an eastside terminal. Cost estimate: $ 5.9 billion.
The Atlanta Journal claims advocates of airport growth say expansion is necessary to keep Atlanta among the top tier of major domestic airports. The article describes how Delta Air Lines earlier this week released an economic impact study showing how the company's growth has benefited the region, and its executives warned they will have to cap Delta's Hartsfield hub and shift growth elsewhere if capacity is not expanded. Tens of thousands of future jobs may be lost if the airport doesn't grow, Georgia State Univeristy economic forecaster Dr. Donald Ratajczak says in the article.
A spokesman for Delta, by far the largest tenant at Hartsfield, said the carrier "will pursue an aggressive expansion plan" but stopped short of endorsing a specific plan, according to the article. The article states that other airlines at Hartsfield will likely let Delta take the lead in lobbying for expansion. "Those kinds of large capital projects involving runways or terminals have to be driven by the hub carrier," said Tim Smith, a spokesman for American Airlines. The Journal reports that Mayor Bill Campbell said he plans to meet with airport and local government officials about the master plan. "There's still a lot of analysis to be done as we closely examine the benefits and feasibility of the remaining alternatives," Campbell says in the article.
Once the city decides on its course, the article goes on, it must work out funding. In the past, smaller projects have been paid for with direct grants from the FAA, ticket taxes and fees airlines pay to use the gates and runways.
The Journal reports that the results of Friday's committee vote were close, and an option for the six runway to be south of the airport missed making the cut by one point. Each committee member reviewed 16 options, then picked his or her top four. Airport officials tallied how many times an option was ranked among the leading choices.
According to the article the three-hour debate before the vote swung between the competing economic and community interests. Most of the airport is in Clayton County, but a portion of the main terminal and Delta's headquarters lie in Fulton County. Atlanta owns the airport even though none of it lies within its city limits.
The article says Clayton's Bray, while opposing any new expansion on the south end of Hartsfield, did say that something must be done ---or the metro economy won't continue to thrive.
The article continues, rather than extend the fifth runway into Clayton, he said, the airport should put a new runway north of its current boundaries. The plans call for it to be in the Fulton communities of College Park, East Point and Hapeville. College Park experienced a boom in hotel and offices and restaurants after the current terminal was built in 1980. Bray would like to see an eastside terminal spur similar development in Clayton.
He said that the airport had promised Clayton citizens that the fifth runway would only be used for landing commuter planes, according to the article. "Now they're talking about lengthening into (Clayton) before they even turn the first shovel of dirt," Bray said in the article. T.C. Meuninack, representing the FAA's air traffic controllers, favored the sixth runway on the airport's north side. Meuninack argued that scenario would best accommodate airport operations, the article says.
According to the airport's analysis, a north runway would displace more than 3,000 households and 978 businesses in the three cities. A southside runway could disclocate as many as 7,000 households and more than 900 businesses, the Atlanta Journal reports.
According to the report Committee member Rex Renfroe, a Fulton resident, questioned Atlanta's opposition to building a second airport elsewhere. A second airport has been rejected because suggestions by the state two years ago showed political and community opposition would be fierce, especially in the northern part of the state. But, the article says, Clayton, College Park and south Fulton have long taken the hit in noise and dislocation for the entire region, Southside residents and political leaders contended.
PUBLICATION: The Dallas Morning News
DATE: December 13, 1997
SECTION: News; Pg. 41A
BYLINE: Holly Becka
DATELINE: Dallas, Texas area
ACTIVISTS, INDIVIDUALS, AND GROUPS MENTIONED: Lawrence Cummings, Billy Dennis, neighbors
According to the Dallas Morning News, the Calvary Christian Center has turned down the volume of its Westminster chimes, which will now ring only five times daily instead of 13 times, under an agreement announced Friday. The article reports that church pastor Thomas Jackson and Lawrence Cumings, a neighbor who complained about the bells, said they had reached a compromise.
The agreement was reached, the article reports, after Mr. Jackson on Thursday visited Mr. Cumings' home, located a block away from the church, to hear how the sound penetrated the house.
According to the report, the bells will chime now at 8 a.m., noon, 3 p.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. In the summer, they also will ring at 7 and 8 p.m. Mr. Cumings said church officials agreed to lower the bells' volume as much as he wanted. Lance Cargill, the church's attorney, said both sides were pleased the compromise would allow the bells to keep ringing. "It speaks to the spirit of the season," Mr. Cargill said in the article.
The report says Mr. Cumings had filed a complaint Nov. 7 with The Colony Police Department. He said the bells kept him awake because he sleeps during the day. Another resident of The Colony donated the chimes in memory of her late husband for the church's new building and bell tower, which opened in early September.
According to the article, not everyone is happy with the agreement, and the dispute may not be over. Billy Dennis, who with his wife filed a noise complaint about the bells Dec. 1 with the Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace, said he could hear the chimes as loud as ever in his nearby home, the article reports. "I can't see where they turned them down at all," Mr. Dennis said after the 6 p.m. chimes. "I don't want to hear them in my home." The report says Mr. Dennis, who said he knew nothing about Friday's announcement, was surprised when told that officials had also announced that the Denton County District Attorney's Office was planning to recommend that Mr. Dennis' complaint be dropped. He said, according to the article, if Mr. Cumings can live with the agreement, "then bless him. It's been two months now. I'm not giving up."
The story goes on to say that District Attorney Bruce Isaacks said he had made the decision Friday afternoon that Mr. Dennis' case would be more appropriately handled in The Colony's municipal court. He said a city noise statute covers the nature of Mr. Dennis' complaint more specifically than the more general state statute. Mr. Isaacks said, according to the report, if Mr. Dennis wants to pursue the matter, he can refile his nuisance complaint with the municipal court or file a lawsuit.
The article states that Mr. Jackson, the church pastor, said he wasn't surprised that Mr. Dennis plans to pursue his case. "It's been an ongoing thing with him," Mr. Jackson said in the article. "When we had an outreach concert, he didn't like it. We brought in a portable building, and he was upset. When we built a playground for the children, he didn't like it. I feel that any reasonable person is going to be happy with the settlement. Any objective person would have to say the bells are significantly lower," the article reports.
PUBLICATION: Los Angeles Times
DATE: December 13, 1997
SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 2; Metro Desk
DATELINE: Los Angeles, California
The Los Angeles Times reports that a meeting with Federal Aviation Administration officials and Los Angeles International Airport representatives resulted in the decision to create a task force to consider noise issues relating to proposed expansion at the airport. The two issues are turns that are made too soon and low-altitude approaches made by landing aircraft.
The article says the task force would include officials from the FAA, the American Transport Association (for the airlines), and the airport. The proposal for expansion includes a 60% capacity increase by 2015. Residents are concerned about increased noise, especially in cities in the South Bay area. Loyola Marymount University hosted a public meeting, that the FAA officials later attended, about the issue.
PUBLICATION: The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC)
DATE: December 13, 1997
SECTION: News; Pg. A1
BYLINE: Joseph Neff
DATELINE: Littleton, North Carolina
The News and Observer reports how Central Prison in Littleton North Carolina has housed its share of notorious criminals over the years -killers, rapists, robbers and such. But the Big House has seldom locked up the likes of James Melvin. Melvin, who is 69, deaf, legally blind and diabetic, walked out of Central Prison a free man Friday after pulling time for violating Section 13 of the Animal Control Ordinance of the Town of Littleton. His dogs were barking too much.
"I'm not a criminal," Melvin said through a sign-language interpreter, moments after a tearful reunion with his wife outside the prison, where he finished his jail sentence because Central has facilities to treat his health problems. "They fingerprinted me and everything, just for having dogs." Melvin's dogs - more than a dozen of them - have embroiled him in a long-running dispute with some of his neighbors. They say the dogs make a constant racket that spoils the peace in their otherwise quiet town of 650, the article reports.
The five-year saga has been hard on all sides, according to Littleton's town attorney, Gilbert Chichester, whose law office is on the block where the Melvins live. At the heart of it is a failure to communicate. "Mr. Melvin had a tendency to be volatile, and it created a situation where people stayed away from him and put up with him as long as they could," Chichester said in the article. "If Mr. Melvin hadn't had the speech and hearing impairment, I don't think it would've gotten this far."
According to the report, Melvin and his wife, Marlene, moved into their large frame house in 1989. He's retired after working for the Safeway supermarket chain for 30 years. She works with hearing-impaired people in Henderson. With her parents in Illinois and his closest relative in Maryland, the couple says the dogs are like family. "A lot of people don't understand hearing-impaired people," Marlene said. "We're pretty isolated. Our dogs are like our children."
It's a big family: 14 dogs, most of them formerly abandoned or abused, the article goes on. They include Bobby, a terrier mutt rescued from a Dumpster. Part of his rear end and tail had been chewed off in a dogfight, Marlene said. And Bubba, a shaggy white female that was roaming Littleton until the day she tore a hole in the Melvins' screen door and moved in. There's Tripod, a black Lab found tied outside the Roanoke Animal Hospital, busily chewing off a gangrenous leg. James' favorite is Betsy, a white collie that began following him one day, "like a little white lamb, like Mary and the little lamb."
According to the article, Dr. Thomas Grenell, a veterinarian from Emporia, Va., has cared for the Melvins' dogs in his clinic and at their home. The dogs are well cared for, Grenell said. But because of the Melvins' hearing impairments, "I don't think they realize how loud the dogs are sometimes."
The report describes how the original charges were filed in 1993 by a next-door neighbor, Alton Parker. "Well, they've had over 20-some dogs," Parker said. "When you have that amount of dogs, you know they are going to bark, and some dogs bark louder than others. "The case took years to wend its way through the system and was repeatedly continued for lack of a sign-language interpreter. Parker and Melvin have filed other charges against each other assault, communicating threats which have been dismissed.
The barking case finally went to trial in March, the report elaborates. Parker and other neighbors testified about the noise. Other neighbors, including one next door and another across the street, said the dogs caused no problems. A jury found Melvin guilty. Superior Court Judge Robert Burroughs told Melvin to get rid of all but five dogs, Parker said. "He refused to," Parker said. "There was no talking with him."
The report goes on to say that Burroughs sentenced Melvin to 30 days in jail and fined him $ 500. Melvin refused to give up his dogs. He began an appeal of the verdict, but that was dismissed on procedural grounds in November. At that point, he reported to the Halifax County jail. Because of his health problems, county authorities transferred Melvin to Central Prison, which has a hospital.
The article describes how after picking up her husband at Central Prison on Friday, Marlene Melvin said she hopes their problems are over. They've fenced their lot. The dogs go out in shifts for exercise, and spend much of the day inside. Melvin said he was looking forward to being reunited with his dogs. His neighbor, Alton Parker, said he'd like to find a way of keeping peace in the neighborhood. "They are doing a fine thing, but they should be out on a farm somewhere, not in town."
PUBLICATION: The Times-Picayune
DATE: December 13, 1997
SECTION: Money; Pg. C1
BYLINE: Stewart Yerton
DATELINE: New Orleans, Louisiana
According to a Times Picayune report, lease negotiations between a New Orleans airport and several major airlines have become so deadlocked that a city councilman has suggested that local business leaders mediate before the airline leases expire this month. Jim Singleton suggested the Chamber of Commerce step in to help bring the two sides together.
The article reports that the New Orleans Aviation Board and the airlines have been stalemated for several weeks over the structure of a new lease proposed by the board. Airlines have complained of high operating costs at the airport, which for airlines have meant high landing fees. Under the proposed lease, the Aviation Board would lower landing fees but raise terminal rental fees. That move likely would lower costs for Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines, which tend to move planes in and out of the airport quickly. But it would mean higher costs for the other airlines, executives have said.
Moreover, the report goes on, Mayor Marc Morial has proposed lowering landing fees to $1 per thousand pounds for new nonstop flights to cities not yet served. Several airlines have objected to that proposal, arguing that it would be illegal and unfair for the airlines that have long served New Orleans with no discounted landing fee. Negotiators for Northwest Airlines, Continental Airlines, United Airlines and USAirways met with Singleton and Councilwoman Peggy Wilson on Tuesday and voiced concerns about the management of the airport and lease issues, Wilson and Singleton said in the article.
According to the article, later on Tuesday, the airlines met with Aviation Board negotiators, but made little progress on some of the key issues that have hamstrung the talks. The lease expires at the end of this year, but the Aviation Board could extend the lease for six months to give the parties time to hammer out an agreement.
The report describes how airport spokesman Allan Katz acknowledged that talks are stalled. He said airport officials would be willing to extend the lease if necessary, but said the real matter hampering negotiations is a proposal to reduce airplane noise over Kenner. "Because of the noise problems over Kenner Mayor Morial has proposed to the airlines a mandatory noise abatement program which they are considering but can't possibly respond to before Jan. 1," Katz said. "For that reason the Aviation Board is considering a six-month extension of the lease if the airlines are so inclined."
The article goes on to say that Singleton said it might be time for a third party to step in to help push the lease talks forward. He suggested that chamber President Bob Gayle act as an informal mediator because the business community has a large stake in the development of the airport. Gayle said he would be willing to help if the airlines wanted him to do so, but he said the airlines had not yet contacted him.
PUBLICATION: Chicago Sun-Times
DATE: December 12, 1997
SECTION: Nws; Pg. 32
BYLINE: Susan Dodge
DATELINE: Evanston, Illinois
ACTIVISTS, INDIVIDUALS, AND GROUPS MENTIONED: Kiki Melonides, member, North Evanston Watch
The Chicago Times reports that residents of Evanston, Illinois are fed up with noise and lights from Northwestern University's Ryan Field. A group of Evanston residents is asking the school to ban night football games.
According to the report, Northwestern played one late game this season, the Oct. 4 game against Wisconsin that began at 6 p.m. Afternoon games sometimes end after dark, however, and portable lights are brought in.
The report indicates that NU is unlikely to comply with the request for a ban on night games or to change the times of any home games because they largely are dictated by television, a university spokesman said. "We've been lucky this year because all but one of our home games were televised," said Al Cubbage, a university spokesman. "You can decry that, but TV is paying millions of dollars to broadcast college football and it's their decision when they want to broadcast games." Evanston gets nearly $ 500,000 a year in revenue from stadium ticket taxes, Cubbage said.
The article goes on to describe how city ordinances require the university to keep some lights on at the stadium at all times for safety, Cubbage added. But some Evanston residents who live near Ryan Field said they are tired of the noise and lights and want the university to curb them. "Northwestern has been proceeding with stadium events with little or no regard for the residents who live just beyond its borders," said Kiki Melonides, who lives near the stadium.
According to the report, residents in a group called North Evanston Watch also are asking the university and the city to crack down on public drinking before and after home games. The group met Tuesday night with Rick Taylor, Northwestern's athletic director, and Grier Davis, the university's special assistant to the president for government relations. "We've had several meetings with the neighbors in the past about construction at Ryan Field," Cubbage said.
Cubbage said in the report that many area residents knew when they were buying their houses that they would be living near a football stadium because the facility, formerly known as Dyche Stadium, was constructed in 1926. Northwestern's football success in recent years has meant increased traffic and lighting for televised games at the stadium, but the benefit has been having Evanston publicized to a national audience, Cubbage said.
The report describes how neighbors have complained in recent months about the public address system being too loud at the stadium and about marching band practice being held at 7 a.m. Saturdays. Some residents also are upset that Northwestern held a Counting Crows rock concert at the stadium Oct. 20 without notifying them first. Cubbage said the concert was announced in area newspapers.
PUBLICATION: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
DATE: December 12, 1997
SECTION: Aukesha Pg. 2
BYLINE: Sam Martino
DATELINE: Eagle, Michigan
The Milwaukee Journal reports that town officials of Eagle, Michigan have asked the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to halt shooting of clay pigeons at the McMiller Sports Center.
The article states that town Chairman Don Wilton wants a letter from DNR Secretary George Meyer pledging an end to the shooting at the center effective April 1, 1999. Wern Valley Inc., which operates a shooting preserve in the Town of Genesee, has a five-year lease with the DNR to operate the center here until mid-1999. The state-owned center has a variety of uses, including a gun range for target practice and an archery range. On Wednesday, town officials postponed action on a request for the one-year renewal of a conditional use permit for Wern Valley until the town hears from Meyer. "I want something in writing from George Meyer that will say shooting clays will no longer exist after 1999," Wilton said.
According to the article, residents who live near the range continued to complain to the town about the noise Wednesday night. During peak shooting times, officials have said, there can be as many as 2,500 shots per hour on the range. Wern Valley has said that about 20,000 people from southeastern Wisconsin use the range. "That's almost unreal. That is a lot of gunfire," Wilton said. The town banned sporting clay shooting temporarily at the range in July, refusing to renew a conditional use permit for range operation because of noise complaints.
The article describes how Wern Valley has offered to cut by 25% the number of shooting days for sporting clays to 38 days per year, or 152 hours. But Wern Valley owner Steve Williams has said that without any sporting clay range, it would be financially difficult to support the center and 12 part-time employees likely were to be laid off. Even after hiring a sound-abatement consultant and spending more than $10,000 on an experimental shooting hut at the range, DNR officials have been unable to solve the noise problem. A DNR task force is exploring future use of the center.
PUBLICATION: The Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
DATE: December 12, 1997
SECTION: Local/Region, Pg. B1, Carpenter
BYLINE: Paul Carpenter
DATELINE: Lower Macungie, Pennsylvania
The Morning Call reports in an editorial that a Wal-Mart store is planned at a 41-acre commercial site in Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania. Vexed residents have organized for a fight.
The editorial comments that you can confidently predict that there will be more opposition to Wal-Marts than to any other commercial proposals. A frequently expressed concern is that Wal-Marts tend to run other stores out of business. They do that by offering lower prices and better service. This is in an era when many store clerks can't be bothered with helping you find a particular item.
Another concern, expressed in the editorial, one vociferously expressed in Lower Macungie, is that a Wal-Mart store will annoyingly increase traffic. It's unclear how a Wal-Mart will do that more than any other type of development, but it brings to mind Yogi Berra's observation that no one goes to a certain New York restaurant anymore because it's too crowded. It was also reported on Thursday that the novelty of the monumentally annoying Heydt's Lights display in Allentown has worn off.
Last year, the editorial explains, gawkers flocked to see how one of the city's nicest parks had been corrupted by chintzy holiday glitter. Now, many of the gawkers are apparently finding alternative amusements. Who knows? Maybe they discovered that parks can be useful for things other than making money for politicians and their pals. Heydt's Lights attendance, it was reported, is down by 4,700 cars, compared to the same period last year. That did not discourage city spin doctors, who confidently predicted that gobs of gawkers will show up before Jan. 12, when the park will be allowed to resume being a park.
The editorial goes on to explain how the stories about Wal-Mart and Heydt's Lights came one day after a story about a new stadium for minor league baseball just south of Easton. The Williams Township Zoning Hearing Board, it was reported, approved nine zoning variances to let the Lehigh Valley Stadium proceed, but the board balked over a 10th. The 10th request was to waive a requirement that commercial establishments avoid blasting surrounding neighborhoods with amplified noise.
A township ordinance says commercial operations cannot exceed 64 decibels on their property, the editorial reports, nor make noise loud enough to bug people off their property. The restriction, it was reported, applies only to amplified sound, not cheering crowds. "In order for this to function as a stadium, they need their public address system," design engineer Lou Ronca was quoted as saying.
Why? The editorial asks, what is it that super-amplified sound adds to a baseball game? Baseball is so slow-moving and boring that there would be plenty of time to paint big signs at center field to let the crowd know what's going on. Even with a real sport, such as ice hockey, stadium people seem fixated with noise. They are afraid we might talk to each other without yelling during a lull, so they bombard us with horrible organ music or other racket that appeals to the crowd's Beavis and Butthead element.
Many restaurants, the commentary continues, are also fond of horrible music, designed to keep patrons from communicating with each other about how bad the food is. When you make a call and are put on hold, some phone systems turn on elevator music from Lawrence Welk's worst nightmare. I always just hang up when that happens, but I bet some people suffer through it.
Still, the article claims, restaurants, businesses with automated phone systems, hockey stadiums, and even Wal-Mart usually keep their noise inside, where it annoys only their patrons and not the neighbors. Heydt's Lights create only collateral noise, from cars that line up and honk while waiting to get into the park, although that seems to be less of a problem this year.
The commentary concludes that having said all that, the writer confidently predicts that Williams Township will ultimately approve the baseball stadium, amplified noise and all. Modern culture has developed a boom-box mentality, where it is considered virtuous to annoy others.
PUBLICATION: Omaha World-Herald
DATE: December 12, 1997
SECTION: News; Pg. 33Sf
BYLINE: Kendrick Blackwood
DATELINE: Plattsmouth, Nebraska
The Omaha World-Herald reports that a debate over a proposed amphitheater between Omaha and Lincoln is shaping up to be a choice between the amphitheater complex or an expansion of the nearby Quarry Oaks Golf Course that would include single-family homes and townhomes.
The article describes how the two interests squared off Thursday night in a packed room at the Cass County Courthouse. Their armaments were traffic studies, full-color posters and no small amount of rhetoric.
After a three-hour public hearing, the report goes on, the County Planning Commission tabled the application to rezone the amphitheater site from agricultural to commercial planned development. The amphitheater is the dream of Chip Davis, the driving force behind the musical group Mannheim Steamroller. To be named Aire Plex, the 174-acre site would include the amphitheater, which would have 2,900 fixed seats and grass seating for up to 14,000 more. Also planned: an indoor concert hall with seating for 2,500; two restaurants; a stage and other facilities for children; an observatory; a beer garden; concessions; and a hotel.
The article describes how Davis' representatives were on hand and talked about the project as a good fit with the golf course, Nebraska's Wildlife Safari Park, Mahoney State Park and the new Strategic Air Command Museum. "We think it can be a wonderful addition not only to the area institutions that are already out there but to the state of Nebraska," said Steve Kalhorn, executive vice president of Sound Trak Inc., Davis' company pursuing the project.
Kalhorn and representatives of HDR Inc., the Omaha company designing the amphitheater, brought aerial photos for each of the commission members, color brochures, pieces of log and stone like those that would be used in the buildings, and an hour-long presentation, the report goes on.
But, the article says, Quarry Oaks came with its own lengthy presentation and its own experts. Taking the trouble to fly in a law enforcement official from Grant County, Wash. Mike Shay's "war story" painted a bleak picture of what has happened in his rural Washington county because of an outdoor amphitheater. During one concert 75 drug overdose victims were treated by a local hospital, but none of them paid his or her bill. The concerts that occur almost every weekend during the summer stretch law enforcement and emergency personnel to their limits, he said. "These kids show up at our venue. They're drunk and they're high," Shay said. "You just can't imagine the trouble that this brings." The traffic problems in particular were worse than anyone expected, with cars backing up in all directions. "Get ahold of your boots, because it's coming," Shay said.
According to the article if the amphitheater were allowed, it would end plans by Quarry Oaks to expand its development with nine more holes lined with single-family homes and townhomes, said Jim Hewitt, an attorney representing Quarry Oaks. He estimated the development would add $ 130 million to the property-tax base, but not if the amphitheater project were to go ahead. "The outdoor amphitheater is something we simply cannot live with," Hewitt said.
The report explains that despite the well-funded and well-organized efforts, Planning Commission member Roy Smith said he would not make a quick decision. "I'm in a very enviable position. I'm not beholden to either one of them," Smith said. "I have all the time I need to study the facts." Although both sides spent more than an hour on their presentations, the commission members still had questions that went unanswered. Smith and most of the other commission members said they wouldn't vote on the matter until they had more information, particularly about traffic and noise that would be caused by the amphitheater. The Nebraska Department of Roads has not completed its study of what the amphitheater would mean for roads and traffic.
The report claims Jeff Johnson, project manager for the amphitheater, said his group would do its best to provide the commission with more information on noise in the next few weeks. Johnson said he was hoping to get construction started next year and begin scheduling musical acts for the summer of 1999.
PUBLICATION: Omaha World-Herald
DATE: December 12, 1997
SECTION: News; Pg. 36
BYLINE: Kendrick Blackwood
DATELINE: Plattsmouth, Nebraska
The Omaha World-Herald reports that the fate of a proposed open-air amphitheater halfway between Omaha and Lincoln remained up in the air Thursday night after the Cass County Planning Commission chose to table the proposal.
According to the report, the decision came after a public hearing that lasted more than three hours and drew more than 60 people, who crammed into a first-floor room of the Cass County Courthouse and spilled out into the hallway. Squaring off during the hearing were representatives of Chip Davis, the driving force of the musical group Mannheim Steamroller, and Quarry Oaks Golf Course, which is just north of the proposed amphitheater, dubbed Aire Plex. Davis is trying to get the 174-acre site southeast of the Mahoney State Park interchange on Interstate 80 rezoned from agricultural to commercial planned development.
The article describes how an attorney representing the golf course said that if the amphitheater is allowed, it will end plans by Quarry Oaks to expand its development with nine more holes lined with single-family homes and townhomes. Despite the well-funded and well-organized efforts, Planning Commission member Roy Smith said he would not make a quick decision. "I'm in a very enviable position. I'm not beholden to either one of them," Smith said. "I have all the time I need to study the facts."
Aire Plex, the report goes on, would include the amphitheater with 2,900 fixed seats and grass seating for up to 14,000 more. Also planned as part of the complex would be an indoor concert hall with seating for 2,500; two restaurants; a stage and other facilities for children; an observatory; a beer garden; concessions; and a hotel.
The article reports that although both sides spent more than an hour on their presentations, the commission members still had questions that went unanswered. Smith and most of the other commission members said they wouldn't vote on the matter until they had more information, particularly about traffic and noise that would be caused by the amphitheater. The Nebraska Department of Roads has not completed a study of the expected impact of the proposed concert facility. Jeff Johnson, project manager for the amphitheater, said his group would do its best to provide the commission with more information on noise in the next few weeks.
Cass County residents also made their opinions known during the hearing. Their comments represented both sides, according to the report.
PUBLICATION: Roanoke Times & World News
DATE: December 12, 1997
SECTION: Current, Pg. Nrv1
BYLINE: Robert Freis
DATELINE: Christianburg, Virginia
The Roanoke Times and World News reports that a lumber company expansion and the Brush Mountain subdivision case in Christianburg, Virginia show the limits of the law intended to contain suburban sprawl. The article says the two cases may be catalysts for change.
The report explains the advantages and disadvantages of residential developments in areas zoned for agriculture were on full display Wednesday at a Montgomery County Planning Commission meeting. Developers favor building houses in A-1 zones for several reasons. Estimates are that more than 75 percent of the county is designated A-1. The land often has the right slope and soil to support houses, wells and septic fields. Farmers struggling for economic health or nearing retirement age are willing to sell acreage for residential development. And developers can avoid a full public review of their site plans if they keep lot sizes larger than one-half acre. However, the article goes on, A-1 zones can be precarious for residents and regulators alike, as two cases considered by the Planning Commission demonstrated.
In the first, the article describes, a festering dispute between an industrial sawmill and its neighbors flared up when Turman Lumber Co. asked for a rezoning to expand its operations. The second concerned a controversial residential development on Brush Mountain, where county officials have limited control over issues such as water quality, traffic safety or how well the development fits the county's Comprehensive Plan. "The problem is that you can do too much in A-1," County Attorney Marty McMahon told the commissioners.
Ultimately, the report goes on, the Planning Commission delayed a decision on the Turman Lumber case, and reluctantly voted to approve a final plat for Brush Mountain Estates. Controlling development and "suburban sprawl" in A-1 votes is a major focus of a revised county zoning ordinance. That document, currently under review by the Planning Commission, is the first overhaul of Montgomery County's land use regulations since zoning was adopted locally in 1969.
The article reports that already the new ordinance has been criticized by pro-development advocates. They contend that devices recommended by the ordinance such as a "sliding scale" density requirement, larger lot sizes and linking residential development more closely to public utilities would depress the local housing market and limit the availability of affordable housing.
The report continues that the downside of A-1 residential development, according to County Planning Director Joe Powers, is that "there's not much protection in an A-1 district." Many of the houses near Turman Lumber Co.'s sawmill in western Montgomery County sit in A-1 zones, Powers said. And the rancorous exchanges between representatives of Turman Lumber and neighbors who attended Wednesday's meeting indicated the mixed-use relationship of rural homes and industry isn't working for either party.
According to the article, Turman Lumber wants to rezone about 19 acres it owns off Firetower Road to expand and diversify its operation. The company says if approved the expansion will create new jobs and enhance the local economy. Kendall Clay, a lawyer representing Turman Lumber, said the company has designed the expansion to mitigate neighborhood complaints. Internal roads will be paved and a truck washer will be installed to reduce dust. Tree screens will make the site more attractive and reduce noise somewhat. Clay also said the Turman family may move its operation out of the county if its plan is denied. "I'd like to see it move away," said neighbor Robert Bratton. "I, for one,say vote it down."
The report describes how Bratton and others told the commission that Turman Lumber creates dust, noise and traffic problems. They reiterated many of the complaints voiced four years ago when the county denied a similar request by Turman Lumber to expand.
After listening to both sides debate their case, the article continues, members of the Planning Commission decided to table Turman Lumber's request until its meeting Wednesday. Next, the commission reluctantly reversed itself and voted to approve a final site plan for Brush Mountain Estates, a 94-unit subdivision planned along U.S. 460 west of Blacksburg by local developer Bill Matthews. Last month, the Planning Commission voted to deny the plan, saying the subdivision would be inappropriate for its site and incompatible with the Comprehensive Plan.
According to the report, McMahon said the Planning Commission exceeded its authority by rejecting Brush Mountain Estates' plan. Because the 400-acre site is zoned A-1 and its planned lot sizes meet the county half-acre minimum, Brush Mountain Estates is regulated by the county's subdivision ordinance. The subdivision ordinance requires that applicants satisfy only a checklist of administrative approval, rather than the full public review mandated by a rezoning request. Brush Mountain Estates had either obtained those approvals or was in the process of doing so from agencies such as the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Health Department, McMahon said. Denying the project for reasons not covered by the subdivision ordinance was illegal, he added.
The article says several commissioners reiterated concerns about Brush Mountain Estates. They said the development's plan for individual wells and septic systems might cause health problems. And they worried about the traffic safety problems created by the development, specifically when Brush Mountain Estates residents headed toward Blacksburg have to cross westbound lanes of U.S. 460, pause in the median, then turn left on a steep - and sometimes foggy - downhill slope of the highway. All those concerns are valid, McMahon told the commissioners, but "not a legal option" to deny Brush Mountain Estates' plan. Water and traffic will be issues that residents of the new subdivision will have to face on their own, he added. Now the site plan goes back to the county Board of Supervisors, which is similarly obligated to approve it. "I have a lot of problems with this," said Supervisor Mary Biggs, who attended the Planning Commission meeting. "This can happen all over the county." The remedy, Biggs said, was for the county to approve a new zoning regulation that "addresses the problems in A-1 districts."
The article reports that last on the agenda were site plans for three other new Montgomery County subdivisions in A-1 zones, containing a total of 34 building lots. Preliminary site plans for two of the developments, Forest View subdivision off Nellies Cave Road and River Retreat subdivision off Catawba Road, were approved. A final site plan for Union Valley Estates near Riner was tabled. County officials said they've seen a recent increase in activity over rural housing developments. They believe it's probably because of the strong economy, not concerns about the new zoning ordinance.
Robert Freis can be reached at 381-1674 or robertf@roanoke.com
PUBLICATION: The San Francisco Chronicle
DATE: December 12, 1997
SECTION: News; Pg. A25
BYLINE: Rick Delvecchio
DATELINE: Oakland, California
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Oakland (California) International Airport will undergo a $600 million expansion intended to capture 50 percent more passengers within three years and to triple cargo traffic by 2010, port and city officials said yesterday.
The report describes how the Port Commission is set to approve the environmental review for the project Tuesday, a step toward a scheduled fall 1998 groundbreaking. Port officials believe that the project can move on schedule in spite of the threat of legal action from airport neighbors in San Leandro and Alameda. Residents of Alameda's Bay Farm Island and the San Leandro shoreline say aircraft noise is an increasing problem and would only become worse if the airport grows.
According to the article, Oakland officials are intent on making room for the booming cargo industry, and they want a convenient, well-furnished airport that can compete for the loyalties of the 50 percent of East Bay travelers who now cross the bay to San Francisco International. But Oakland is restricted to a backwater airport layout created in the 1920s, and neighborhoods have since grown up at the ends of the runways. Moving the main runway 90 degrees to point away from residential areas has been rejected because it would require filling in wetlands -- and planes would have to climb over San Francisco air traffic and the Oakland hills. Oakland officials have decided that, in spite of their inability to enlarge or redesign the airport, they must compete aggressively for industry growth. And in doing so, it may be impossible to resolve some conflicts with neighbors.
The report says that Oakland officials say they cannot stop night cargo flights, as Bay Farm Island residents are demanding. And they say they cannot say no to cargo companies that want to expand at the northern end of the airport growth that could create thousands of jobs but also could send thousands of 737s winging low over Interstate 880 in San Leandro by 2010.
The report describes how noisy planes are being replaced by larger, quieter aircraft, flights at Oakland are being steered away from populated areas, and airport officials provide sound-deadening insulation to some homeowners. Still, according to the environmental review for the expansion project, noise will remain a serious nuisance for some airport neighbors. Parts of Bay Farm Island could experience 2 1/2 hours a day of noise loud enough to disrupt outdoor conversation, an hour more than now. In San Leandro, the marina area would be exposed to less noise if cargo jets were to start using the north end of the airport, now used mainly by small private planes, instead of the south. But a few blocks northeast at Davis Street and I-880, some San Leandro residents could be in for an hour a day of significant noise and 2 1/2 minutes of 85-decibel roar. "That scenario is a worst-case scenario," airport director Steven Grossman said. "We have no intention of shifting 737 operations to North Field, but we're required to show that as a possibility. We would look at every other alternative to avoid that. If we keep all those jet aircraft at South Field, those impacts will never come about."
Around 2010,according to the report, if the airport becomes as popular as Oakland officials hope, managers would have to decide if they should tolerate delays at South Field or move jets to the north end. "We have lots of growth on the South Field runway," Grossman said. "We're not even thinking of shifting operations to North Field."
The article says the city of San Leandro is threatening to challenge the environmental review in court unless Oakland agrees to a list of demands to ease what Mayor Ellen Corbett calls an intolerable problem. "People are losing sleep, property owners feel property values have declined, classrooms are interrupted when people can't talk over the noise of the airplanes, people can't use their backyards," said Kathleen Ornelas, the city's community relations director. "We don't necessarily want to see the port not be able to expand," she said. "At the same time, people in the community are entitled to quality of life."
The expansion will involve 18 separate projects, the report goes on, including larger cargo handling facilities for Federal Express and the U.S. Postal Service. The two existing passenger terminals will be replaced with a single two-level terminal linked to a 5,000-space parking garage. The terminal will have 12 additional gates. The main airport access road will become a six-lane 98th Avenue instead of Hegenberger Road. Airport officials have $ 100 million in hand for that expansion from Alameda County's Measure B transportation fund, which consumers pay for by way of a half-cent sales tax.
The article also reports that a proposed $ 130 million monorail link from the Coliseum BART station is not included in the project, but airport officials have asked the Alameda County Transportation Authority Board to adopt the project in a Measure B replenishing that would go before voters next year.
PUBLICATION: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
DATE: December 12, 1997
SECTION: Local, Pg. 8B
BYLINE: John Maines
DATELINE: Pembroke Pines, Florida
The Sun Sentinel reports that a "Big Kmart" superstore was given final approval on Thursday and will be built at the northeast corner of Pines Boulevard and Dykes Road on the west side of Pembroke Pines, Florida.
According to the report, the city's Planning and Zoning Board approved a site plan for the store, which will be built in the Westfork Plaza, now under construction. Big Kmart is the discount chain's largest type of store, selling high turnover goods such as food and household products. The 138,279-square-foot store will include an auto repair shop and a garden center. Site plan approval was the final step needed before construction can begin. Kmart plans to have the store open by late next year. Westfork is being developed by Michael Swerdlow Companies of Hollywood.
In 1996,the report goes on, the company dropped plans to build an 18-screen theater on the site after residents of the area complained it would increase crime and noise in the area. The Kmart plan sailed through with only a few questions about landscaping and traffic patterns from board members. No members of the public spoke.
The article says the board on Wednesday also approved a proposal by Koons Ford for an auto dealership on 23 acres of vacant land at the intersection of Pines Boulevard and Southwest 186th Avenue. The new dealership, to be located across the street from Maroone Auto Plaza, will have several restrictions that limit bright lights and noise.
The board also approved a Shell gas station proposed for the intersection of Pines Boulevard and Southwest 145th Avenue, just east of Interstate 75. The gas station will have a convenience mart, car wash, and lube and oil change center, the report says.
PUBLICATION: The Tulsa World
DATE: December 12, 1997
SECTION: Business; Pg. E1
BYLINE: D.R. Stewart
DATELINE: Tulsa, Oklahoma
The Tulsa World reports that airport consultants are proposing a publicly-funded program that would assist 800 homeowners affected by excessive aircraft noise near Tulsa (Oklahoma) International Airport to sell their properties, airport officials said Thursday.
According to the report, airports Director Brent Kitchen told Tulsa Airport Authority trustees that the assistance program will be one of several recommendations offered at a public briefing on aircraft noise at 7 p.m. Monday at the Radisson Airport Inn, 2201 N. 77th East Ave. "Based on comments received at the July public hearing and the (consultant's) investigation of programs at other airports, the consultant is going to present amended recommendations that include adding the sales assistance program," Kitchen told airports trustees.
The report describes how consultant Barnard Dunkelberg & Co., 1616 E. 15th St., conducted a formal public hearing on the noise issue in July.Airport-area residents at that time complained about rattling windows and walls, the inability to enjoy outdoor activities and the overflights of both commercial and Air National Guard jets. A noise survey by the consultant found about 800 homes in the neighborhoods north and east of the airport experience average 24-hour aircraft noise levels of 65 decibels or more. Noise levels of 70 decibels -- roughly equivalent to the sound experienced by an observer situated 50 feet from a busy freeway should be sufficient to begin considering measures to prevent loss of hearing, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
According to the article, Kitchen said the purchase assistance program would begin with an appraisal of the property. The homeowner then would offer the property for sale. If the property didn't sell within a specified period of time, the price would be dropped, he said. "If it sells (at a lower price than the appraisal), we would make up the difference to the homeowner," Kitchen said. Eighty percent of the funding for the property assistance program would come from Aviation Trust Fund grants, which are derived from airline ticket taxes. Twenty percent of the funding would be contributed by airport user fees.
The article includes a report on other matters, J. Brooks Joyner, director of the Gilcrease Museum, said the City of Dallas has offered the City of Tulsa a 56-foot-by-13-foot painted mural by a former Tulsa resident that depicts the history of the Tulsa oil industry. The mural, which has been in storage at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and at Fair Park in Dallas for much of the past 20 years, was painted in 1964-65 by Delbert Jackson, an illustrator for Amoco Production Co. and Hillcrest Medical Center. Jackson died in 1982. Besides showing a panoramic view of the history of oil in northeast Oklahoma, from exploration through the drilling, production and transportation phases, the mural contains portraits of 26 oil industry pioneers, including Walter H. Helmerich II, former chairman of the board of Helmerich & Payne, and John Williams, former chairman of the board of Williams Pipeline Co. Joyner said he has examined the mural in Dallas and found it to be in "very, very good condition. " He said oil industry representatives in Tulsa have expressed interest in underwriting the estimated $ 200,000 cost to restore the mural, mount and transport it to Tulsa. "There is a compound of white lead on the back of the mural that has to be scraped off," Joyner said. "We think our corporate supporters will help fund that effort." Mayor Susan Savage motioned, and the board approved, taking steps to restore the mural and install it in the airport terminal's center concourse.
PUBLICATION: Business Wire
DATE: December 11, 1997
DATELINE: Seattle, Washington
According to a Business Wire Press Release, now in addition to having the youngest fleet among the nation's 10 largest carriers, Alaska Airlines has the quietest. Business Wire released the following press release:
Now in addition to having the youngest fleet among the nation's 10 largest carriers, Alaska Airlines has the quietest. Alaska today completed installation of "hush kits" on eight of its Boeing 737-200s, making it the first major U.S. airline to operate an all Stage 3 fleet. "This is a significant achievement on our part because we're two full years ahead of the federal mandate that requires all commercial carriers to meet quieter Stage 3 standards by the year 2000," said Alaska Airlines President Bill Ayer.
Previously, the eight B737-200s were classified as Stage 2 aircraft. All other aircraft in Alaska's fleet -- 42 Boeing MD-80s and 28 Boeing 737s -- already meet the quieter Stage 3 standard. To achieve the Stage 3 standard, Alaska installed the latest version of the LGW hush kit manufactured by The NORDAM Group, which produces FAA certified hush kits for B737 aircraft. The kits utilize several sound dampening technologies to meet the stricter noise standard.
At the heart of each hush kit is a 12-lobe mixer assembly, which was developed by the engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney. Other modifications include the addition of a spacer between the inlet guide vanes and the fan blades, and the installation of acoustical materials throughout the engine housing and tailpipe, to further reduce engine noise. All eight of B737-200s that were equipped with hush kits are specialized aircraft that can be easily reconfigured to carry varying combinations of passengers and cargo. The aircraft are used primarily for flights to and from the state of Alaska and Seattle, as well as within the state of Alaska.
Contact: Alaska Air Group, Inc.; Jack Evans -or- Lou Cancelmi 206/433-3134 206/433-3170
PUBLICATION: The Daily News of Los Angeles
DATE: December 11, 1997
SECTION: News, Pg. N8
BYLINE: Rick Orlov
DATELINE: Los Angeles, California
The Daily News of Los Angeles reports that more than a year after first moving to ban gasoline-powered leaf blowers, a city panel came up Wednesday with dueling proposals: outlaw the noisy devices next month or phase them out over five years. In both proposals, the severity of the penalty would be reduced from a misdemeanor to an infraction and the fine for any one violation would be $ 270.
According to the article, council members Cindy Miscikowski and Richard Alarcon presented the competing proposals as members of the council's Environmental Quality and Waste Management Committee. Both plans go to the full City Council next week to be hashed out. "We first adopted this last year, and I think it's time to move ahead," Miscikowski said in the article, in embracing a task-force report recommending the blower ban take effect in January if it is approved by the council. But Alarcon said the city needs time to build consensus among residents, gardeners and the leaf-blower industry in the hope of developing alternatives and improving education.
Under Alarcon's proposal,the article continues, blowers could be used in most places but not in sensitive areas, such as schools, hospitals and child care centers. After five years, their use would be phased out entirely. "My goal is to eliminate leaf blowers, but my experience tells me we should move slow," Alarcon said in the report. "I think in the long run my proposal will be more effective." Alarcon said for example the city has yet to hear the protests from people who hire gardeners and who will be forced to pay more for their service.
The article describes how Miscikowski expressed doubts that any additional time would develop any more consensus. "This already has been more than a decade in discussion," Miscikowski said in the article. Both proposals would have the city's Bureau of Street Maintenance conduct a six-month program to respond to residents' complaints and to send out educational letters to gardeners and their employers.
According to the report, an attorney representing the leaf-blower industry which has challenged the city's existing law that has not been enforced warned the city could be creating dangerous conditions. "If you think about what's going to happen in the neighborhoods, you are asking for a multitude of confrontations and unhappy people," attorney Gail Gordon said in the article. "There will be situations where a neighbor is offended by what he thinks is a leaf blower that is too noisy and he has to go to the gardener and detain him and call the police. You're just building a great deal of contentiousness and controversy." Adding to the confusion, Gordon said is the city law exempts leaf vacuums that have noise levels of 65 decibels or less. "A lot of people aren't going to be able to tell the difference and that's where problems will develop," Gordon said.
The article says supporters of the ban said the city had to move quickly to enforce some kind of law because of the bad image it was giving the city. "We're becoming a national joke over this," said Joan Graves, of Los Angeles. "More delays means we will be subject to more ridicule." As an example, Graves cited this week's Time magazine, in which it jibed the city for the police department's refusal to enforce the ban. Police officials said they are now prepared to cite violators they witness as well as assist residents in making a citizen's arrest.
PUBLICATION: The Hartford Courant
DATE: December 11, 1997
SECTION: Town News; Pg. B1
BYLINE: Louise Beecher
DATELINE: Deep River, Connecticut
The Hartford Courant reports that the president of the town of Deep River's landmark Piano Works condominium complex is threatening to take legal action against the town's biggest taxpayer, Uarco Inc., claiming it is violating state noise standards.
According to the article, Uarco officials deny the accusation, but say they are willing to try to muffle sounds produced by equipment at their plant, which produces business forms. Meanwhile, both the company and the condominium association have hired their own experts to study the matter. Uarco is in the center of town at 12 Bridge St., across Deep River almost immediately behind the five- story, 77-unit brick condominium building at 92 Main St. The plant employs 137 people.
The report goes on to say how Thomas E. Jenks, the condominium's president, said this week he has been fighting the noise problem since May 1996 when Uarco installed a cyclone separator, a type of industrial vacuum cleaner that sweeps up the paper trimmings left behind in its production process. "They run the thing all day long and all night long," he said in the article. Jenks said the company took corrective action last summer after a report by an acoustical consultant hired by the condominium association found that noise levels violated state regulations. But, according to the report, he said the corrective action has not brought relief because new air conditioners installed on Uarco's roof have once again brought combined noise levels above legal standards. "[The noise] has basically made the back side of my unit useless as a bedroom," Jenks said. He said that not all units in the building are affected equally because of the way the sound bounces off the side of the building.
According to the report, Uarco attorney Richard Yant maintained that company tests show the plant has always been in compliance with the law. Steve Morera, the plant's acting manager, said that the company was willing to do what it could to address Jenks' complaints but that a study of the situation will have to wait until spring when the air-conditioning units are turned back on. "We want to be good neighbors, and we are good neighbors," Morera said. "There is a limit to what we can do."
Jenks, the article goes on, who has contacted federal, state and local officials, as well as the state Department of Environmental Protection, in his quest for relief, said the condominium association will again spend about $1,500 to hire a consultant to measure noise levels. "The DEP has been less than helpful," he said, adding that the agency has never taken its own noise measurements. A DEP spokesman said the agency no longer has a staffer dealing with noise complaints. Jenks recently wrote to DEP Assistant Commissioner Jane Stahl, saying the condominium association planned to turn the matter over to its lawyer and seek relief in court. Jenks also said, according to the report, that First Selectman Richard Smith, to whom he also has complained, has a conflict of interest in the matter because he is retired from Uarco.
The report describes how Smith bristled at the accusation, saying that he left Uarco when he became first selectman years ago, and has not retired. "The town has bent over backwards" trying to resolve the dispute between the condominium and Uarco, he said. Smith said he had been to the Piano Works about 10 times in the past two years regarding the noise complaints. "I wish I could have worked things out," he said. Smith added he had asked about the noise while campaigning door to door at the condominium, and most people replied they did not have a problem. The exceptions were Jenks and another tenant, Jane Manning, he said in the report. "It's only those two people who have a problem. It may be where their units are. I don't know."
Bill Smyers, the article explains, the consulting engineer hired by the condominium group to measure noise levels, said the shapes of both the Uarco plant and the Piano Works building do cause wide variations in sound. "There are particular spots along the creek where it gets very loud -- and 5 feet away it's not so loud," Smyers said in the article. But he said he had measured noise levels higher than the 51-decibel maximum the state sets for after 10 p.m.
PUBLICATION: The Kansas City Star
DATE: December 11, 1997
SECTION: Zone/Wyandotte County; Pg. 1
BYLINE: Mark Wiebe
DATELINE: Leavenworth County, Kansas
The Kansas City Star reports that the Leavenworth County Planning Commission and several county residents met last week to debate whether the county should grant a special-use permit for a go-cart track at Eisenhower Road and 20th Street Trafficway.
The report explains how opponents of the permit, which would provide an exemption to the rural zoning already in place, argued that noisy go-carts would turn their serene, rural lives into a maddening cacophony. They expressed fears that the track would devalue their properties.
But, the report goes on, County Planning Director John Zoellner delivered a discouraging message to those residents, one they're likely to hear more than once as Eisenhower makes the transition from a rural to a commercial corridor. "You can't stop progress," he said in the report. "You can't live within a mile of the city and expect to be in the country forever." Or, more to the point, you probably can't live near Eisenhower Road and expect to enjoy a bucolic environment for long. The commission, aware of this inevitable change, unanimously approved the special-use permit, the article said.
Although Eisenhower has played host to several businesses, including Armed Forces Insurance and Hallmark Cards Inc., most of its development has occurred east of 13th Street, according to the article. West of that, the road has attracted few commercial endeavors. But after Leavenworth's 20th Street Trafficway opened in September, it provided many Leavenworth motorists with an unencumbered alternative to the stoplights and traffic on Fourth Street. The trafficway, a 3.4-mile north-south thoroughfare, runs between Eisenhower and Spruce Street. And Eisenhower - an east-west road that separates Leavenworth on the north from Lansing and the county on the south offers those motorists the best access to the trafficway's southern entrance. As such, it invites traffic.
The article explains how the potential for that traffic spelled opportunity for Irene and Wendell Taylor, the Leavenworth County couple who intend to build a nearly quarter-mile go-cart track on the southwest corner of 20th and Eisenhower. Theirs would be a small operation, only 10 go-carts with engines no larger than 15 horsepower. And they intend to erect a fence or earth berm to reduce some of the noise, the article said. Nevertheless, many surrounding residents oppose the track. "The noise, the extra traffic, I don't think we need it there," said Henry Wiehe, who lives near the proposed track. But the Taylors responded that, in addition to providing entertainment for children, the track would increase property tax revenues. Besides, they said, go-carts use quieter engines than in the past.
Zoellner, who measured the noise level at a go-cart track in Kansas City, Kan., and compared it to noise levels on Eisenhower Road agreed. "If you stand 70 to 75 feet from it, it's as loud as cars on Eisenhower," he said in the article. "If you stand 200 feet from it, the wind is louder than the cars."
The article describes how Ed Schermbeck, a semiretired farmer who owns several acres adjoining the Taylors' west side, lives across the street from where the track would go. The track's effect on his property values, not noise, was his chief concern as he pleaded with the commission to deny the permit. "You're just devaluing my property and that's my retirement," he said in the article. Schermbeck took little comfort from Wendell Taylor's argument that more commercial developments in the area could increase surrounding property values. Nor was he consoled by Zoellner's prediction that Eisenhower would eventually lose the rural, agricultural and residential zoning designations it now has west of 13th Street.
In fact, the article continues, if the county and city continue to sow the ground for development on Eisenhower, there is probably little Schermbeck and his neighbors can do to preserve their rural surroundings. "The tone for this was set many years ago when the city made designs for 20th Street," said Commissioner Donald Navinsky in the report. Then Navinsky, himself a farmer, paused before adding: "I sympathize with him."
PUBLICATION: Orlando Sentinel Tribune
DATE: December 11, 1997
SECTION: Local & State; Pg. D3
BYLINE: Gwyneth Shaw
DATELINE: Orange City, Florida
The Orlando Sentinel Tribune reports that more than 100 people in Orange City, Florida who have taken to civic activism have a litany of complaints from loud trucks to speeding cars to the proliferation of all-terrain vehicles frolicking on vacant property nearby. This week, the Orange City Council promised to help.
According to the article, one of the group's demands, a stop sign near the community's Leavitt Avenue entrance, has been met. The sign went up last Friday and should help slow the heavy trucks heading to the nearby landfill. But there are still bigger troubles. First, residents object to the trucks' coming down Leavitt and Ohio avenues at all, saying the roads can't accommodate the hundreds of huge vehicles that rumble through each day. "When I moved here, I couldn't believe it when I saw big 18-wheelers on narrow, residential streets," Orange Tree resident Harold Bricker said in the article. "Some little old lady pulls out in front of them, well, they can't stop." Gene Stevenson, president of the community's homeowners association, held up a tally of the more than 300 trucks he said went through in a single eight-hour span. "And I counted five cars that went through the stop sign - including one of our own police cars," he said. Council Member Harold Casteel and Mayor Tony Yebba suggested moving the truck traffic onto Rhode Island Avenue. But the council decided to hold off until a workshop can be held with Orange Tree residents, probably next month.
The article goes on to explain the second lasting concern regarding the freewheeling activities on vacant land that abuts Orange Tree Village. Commonly referred to as Duck Lake, the area plays host to all-terrain-vehicle enthusiasts from three counties. That's dangerous and obnoxious, said Orange Tree resident Irene Wick. "When they start those mini-bikes, you would think that they were in my living room," she said in the article. "There are two of those bikes on the back of every pickup truck. How many do you think are out there?"
According to the article, Orange City Police Chief Sid Massey said the city has to figure out whether the property is within city limits, then make sure the property owners have posted their land, before arrests can be made. But those efforts should be completed soon, he said. "We're going to be talking to the people who go out there and tell them that they need to find a new place to play, because that one's going to be drying up," Massey said. "But until the (trespassing) signs are out there, there's very little we can do about it."
PUBLICATION: The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA)
DATE: December 11, 1997
SECTION: Local; Pg. B01
BYLINE: Ryan Slattery
DATELINE: San Bernadino County, California
The Press Enterprise reports that residents of Lakeview Mobile Estates in San Bernadino County, California are angry about a new park that would cause a heavily traveled road to be moved to within 22 feet of their homes. They have collected more than 100 signatures on a petition and plan to protest at a Planning Commission meeting next week.
According to the article, to build Community Park on Oak Glen Road, the city would move Sunnyside Drive approximately 40 feet to the west and closer to the Lakeview mobile-home park. That design will be discussed at a Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. "We didn't know anything about it," said Diane Greenawalt, a resident who helped circulate the petition. "As far as we knew, the park was on the other side of the road, and that seemed fine. " Greenawalt said park residents weren't aware that the road would be moved until they received a letter from the park owner just two days before Thanksgiving. She said that because of the holiday and a city deadline of Dec. 2 to file complaints on the project, she was only able to get about a quarter of the park's residents to sign the petition. Greenawalt said residents are concerned that moving the road would result in additional noise and exhaust fumes from more cars going to the park. "The road is going to be very large and busy," Greenawalt said in the article.
The article reports that this fall the city held three community meetings with park designers and residents to get input on what elements the public wanted to see included in the 32-acre park. "We feel they can spare a few feet." According to the report, Community Development Director John McMains said he is aware of the residents' concerns and their request that the road be moved no closer than 35 feet from their homes. He said the city could legally move the road to within 11 feet of the park's property line. "We are willing to double it and create a buffer zone," McMains said in the article. "We have to draw the line somewhere. A lot of other people have roads closer than that to their homes. " McMains said that the city will construct a block wall and plant shrubs to eliminate some of the noise created by the new park. City officials said the main parking lot for the park will be off Oak Glen Road, not Sunnyside Drive.
The report explains how Tim Maloney, a consultant for Community Works Design of Riverside, the group designing the park, said the project is intended to take advantage of all usable space. "To leave it where it is would have left a chunk of the park unused," Maloney said. "We want to efficiently use as much land as possible." According to Maloney, the new park will cost between $ 5 million and $ 6 million to construct and will be built in several phases over a five-year period. The city has allocated $ 2.2 million toward the first phase of the project, which is expected to begin next spring. Elements that will be constructed in the first phase include equestrian and walking trails, children's play areas, sports fields and an amphitheater.
PUBLICATION: The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)
DATE: December 11, 1997
SECTION: North Side Voice, Pg. N11
BYLINE: Kathy Mulady
DATELINE: Spokane, Washington
The Spokesman-Review reports that an estimated 400 cars and trucks are expected to arrive at and depart from a proposed fleet maintenance complex in the Garry Park neighborhood of Spokane, Washington each morning, around the same time students are on their way to school. Neighbors voiced concerns about the noise, traffic and potential danger to school-children during a community meeting with city officials Tuesday.
According to the report, the purpose of the meeting was to draw a list of potential environmental concerns the city can address in its studies while developing plans for the facility. The list includes traffic and noise, especially at Napa, Boone, Desmet and Stone streets and Trent Avenue. Air and water quality, rodents and damage to neighborhood roads from constant heavy truck traffic are other critical issues. "The city is trying to work with the neighborhood to create a model of how these things can be done right," said Jim Kolva, an land use consultant who is preparing the environmental study for the project. Despite concerns that the complex is "too big" for the neighborhood, questions about funding and fears that some property values will decline, the atmosphere at the meeting was mostly positive. Neighbors offered ideas to soften noise and traffic impacts. One neighbor suggested the city install overhead crossings at critical intersections to let students to safely cross congested intersections.
The report describes how about 400 cars and trucks are expected to go in and out of the complex from 7 to 8:30 a.m. Several city departments are expected to be consolidated at the operations complex including fleet services, park maintenances and transportation, which involves street maintenance and traffic engineering, construction services, solid waste management, water and hydroelectric services. About 635 employees are expected to arrive at and depart the proposed facility, located at the former Long Lake Lumber Site, each working day. Most will arrive before 6:30 a.m., and leave between 2:30 and 4 p.m. In addition, 165 large vehicles, including garbage trucks, snow plows in the winter and street repair equipment will roll out of the facility between 5 and 8:30 a.m. on a typical morning.
The article reports how supporter Jim Santorsola and others ask, "What if the city doesn't move to the site?" He said homes, apartments or other industry could bring similar issues, with less control from the neighborhood. City engineer Dick Raymond told the audience having the city as a potential neighbor has its benefits. "This is your chance to control your destiny and have a voice in what happens there," he said in the article.
PUBLICATION: Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
DATE: December 11, 1997
SECTION: News; Pg. 1B
BYLINE: Jim Parsons
DATELINE: Minneapolis, Minnesota
According to the Star Tribune, Hwy. 100 through Brooklyn Center, Crystal, Robbinsdale and Golden Valley, Minnesota will be rebuilt between 1999 and 2003 as a six-lane freeway from Glenwood Avenue to County Rd. 81 and as a four-lane freeway from there to 50th Avenue N., the Department of Transportation has announced.
"We've worked hard to get these improvements," said Crystal Mayor Peter Meintsma in the report. "It will greatly improve access and that will lead to commercial and business development. We've watched the southern suburbs get wonderful improvements in their infrastructure while we've struggled to get crumbs." "There will be some painful dislocations," Meintsma said. "For instance, we're going to lose Nicklow's Restaurant and we regret that, but overall it is going to make driving safer and easier as well as encourage development." Meintsma noted that Hwy. 100's biggest bottleneck is in Crystal, where its four lanes going north and south intersect with four east-west lanes of 36th Avenue N. "An overpass will separate all that traffic," he said, "and we will get rid of a perpetual traffic jam that leads to a lot of accidents."
According to the report, the highway department expects to spend $24.8 million for right-of-way purchases, including 33 commercial properties and 115 homes. Another $ 61.8 million will be spent on highway construction. The project has been under discussion for years. "We aren't losing much property in Golden Valley - I think just two homes where the interchange at Hwy. 55 is being expanded," said Golden Valley Mayor Mary Anderson. "The project may affect two small commercial properties, too. "Probably the major concern we heard from citizens was about noise. People wanted to know the impact of the noise and about sound walls and things like that. "This [process] has gone on so long that a lot of the property owners will just be glad to get it over with - to finally know what is going to happen to them."
The article describes how the reconstruction will include rebuilding the roadway, medians and bridges while eliminating stoplights and some entrances to the highway. Ramp meters and special lanes for car pools will be included in the freeway design. The Department of Transportation still must complete a final environmental impact statement on the 5.2-mile project before final construction plans are completed and the department begins purchasing right of way.
PUBLICATION: Chicago Tribune
DATE: December 11, 1997
SECTION: Metro Northwest; Pg. 1; Zone: Nw
BYLINE: Rogers Worthington
DATELINE: Chicago, Illinois
ACTIVISTS, INDIVIDUALS, AND GROUPS MENTIONED: Jack Saporito, Noise Pollution Activist, Director, Alliance of Residents Concerning O'Hare, President, The U.S. Citizen's Aviation Watch; Eric Zwerling, Director, Noise Technical Assistance Center; Alice Suter, Noise Consultant; Suburban O'Hare Commission
The Chicago Tribune reports that Jack Saporito, activist against airport noise and pollution, sits alone in his Arlington Heights home pondering his next move: trying to get a curfew on overnight flights at O'Hare International Airport.
The article describes how Saporito is a tireless director of the Alliance of Residents Concerning O'Hare. Never mind that the odds are as remote as winning the grand prize in the Lottery, Saporito is undaunted. "I've seen flashes in the pan before. This isn't it. These people are in it for the long haul," said Eric Zwerling, director of the Noise Technical Assistance Center at Rutgers University in New Jersey, who is familiar with Saporito's efforts.
According to the article, although he has no ill or disabled people to parade and no local medical reports or epidemiological studies to brandish, Saporito is convinced that the sounds of jet aircraft, aircraft emissions and the fluids used to keep ice from forming on plane wings affect the health of people in communities that surround the world's busiest airport. "I've been trying for years to get organizations to see the environmental damage and study it," he said. "The problem is, nobody wants to know this." Critics see Saporito, 50, as an eco-alarmist, but public-interest activists laud him for building awareness of toxic chemicals at airports.
The report says he began AReCO with 26 of his south Arlington Heights neighbors in 1993. His self-made role of environmental Paul Revere comes at a time of growing attention in Congress and municipalities on several continents to the environmental impact of airports. He also is president of the U.S. Citizens Aviation Watch, a coalition with international links that he organized last August with groups in Seattle, Minneapolis, Denver, New York, Atlanta, Washington and other cities. "There's been a sort of despair over the past couple of decades. But now it looks like people are mobilizing again," said Alice Suter, a consultant and former noise specialist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
According to the story, AReCO started out as the citizens' counterpart to the Suburban O'Hare Commission, a municipal organization long opposed to airport noise and expansion. But Saporito, who had a small marketing and advertising business, broke away when he felt the commission did not share his passion for airport-pollution issues and remedies such as high-speed rail. He also dropped his support for a proposed third airport at Peotone when the General Assembly failed to pass a promised ban on additional runways at O'Hare. "We felt betrayed," he said. Since then, he has campaigned to get the Federal Aviation Administration to lower the limits on aircraft- noise levels in residential areas to 55 decibels from 65. He has lobbied municipalities to support the proposed Quiet Communities Act in Congress, which would restore to the EPA its office of noise abatement and control, which was stripped of its funding in 1982. Saporito, who works nights as a maintenance man at a home for disabled children, has railed against the FAA for recently giving O'Hare additional air traffic "slots" rather than rotating existing ones.
The report says in November, he testified before the EPA to encourage it to include airport emissions and chemicals, such as ethylene glycol de-icing fluids, in its toxic release inventory. He has circulated petitions demanding that the oversight of all sources of pollution at airports be taken from the FAA and given to the EPA. In his fervor, Saporito is sometimes guilty of hyperbole, as in a recent letter to President Bill Clinton in which he wrote: "If the airport pollution is calculated correctly, I believe that O'Hare Airport is probably one of the largest, if not the largest, single, man-made source polluters in the world." Such claims have not gone unnoticed at O'Hare. "It's an irritant when he gets facts out there that are wrong," said Chicago Department of Aviation spokesman Dennis Culloton.
But, according to the article, others acknowledge a germ of truth in Saporito's statements. "With takeoffs and landings taken into consideration, (O'Hare is) a substantial emissions source in the Chicago area," said Donald Sutton, permit section manager in the Illinois EPA's division of air-pollution control. Sutton speculates that O'Hare, including ground auto, bus and truck traffic leading to and away from it, may produce up to twice as much in toxic pollutants as a coal-fired power plant, a major source of air pollution in other parts of the state.
The article goes on to describe how major urban airports such as O'Hare remain something of a regulatory no-man's land in regard to the environment. Airports, for instance, are not required to report to any agency the amount of toxic substances they use. Although the EPA considers airborne emissions of aircraft, no agency, including the Illinois EPA, regulates the cumulative effects of on-ground aircraft emissions at the airport. State officials say they are not aware of any ground-water pollution at O'Hare. But in winter months, when holding ponds for toxic de-icing fluid runoff are full, some of the fluid flows into neighboring streams. A $75 million plan to control de-icing runoff from O'Hare's north field runways is under way, Culloton said. Saporito said he wants to see legislation requiring O'Hare to be treated as any other industrial site that emits pollutants potentially hazardous to those living nearby. His frustration is that he has failed to interest hospitals, universities, legislators, government officials, public-interest organizations or other groups in studying a possible link to illnesses from airport pollution. "We need to know the truth so we can make informed decisions," he said in the report.
More on the Internet: Read archived stories detailing the long controversy and join the on-line debate at chicago.tribune.com/go/elkgrove
PUBLICATION: Agence France Presse
DATE: December 10, 1997
SECTION: International News
DATELINE: Sydney, Australia
The Agence France Presse reports that traffic was slowed to a crawl around the Sydney, Australia airport for several hours Wednesday because of a protest by officials from 11municipalities demanding a second international airport.
According to the report, the mayors and officials conducted a go-slow protest around the airport in a 100-truck cavalcade which one mayor said stretched two kilometers (1.2 miles). "This is a gentle reminder that there is an issue to be resolved," said Barry Cotter, mayor of Marrickville, a municipality affected by air traffic noise close to the airport. Cotter said mayors want to see a decision on a new airport and the release of an environmental impact statement on one site. The government has looked at several sites for a second airport, without making any commitment. "If we are not going to get a decision and if we don't get the environmental impact statement, get ready for a lot more protests," Cotter said.
The report goes on to describe how the latest protest followed a series of blockades of the airport almost three years ago in protest against the opening of a new runway which increased noise for many Sydney suburbs, creating demands for a new airport. Traffic around the airport was disrupted by the protest and police were kept busy directing motorists around the trucks. Airport officials issued a warning to people headed to the airport to leave plenty of time for the trip, although few if any flights were affected.
PUBLICATION: Agence France Presse
DATE: December 10, 1997
SECTION: International News
DATELINE: New Delhi, India
The Agence France Presse reports that a political party in India has been fined 10,000 rupees (256 dollars) for causing noise pollution, it was reported Wednesday.
According to the report, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP, Majority People's Party) was fined by a court in the eastern city of Calcutta on Tuesday for putting up loud hailers at a public meeting, The Statesman said. A local leader of the BSP, which champions the cause of millions of Hindu "untouchables," paid the fine and apologized to the judge.
PUBLICATION: The Arizona Republic
DATE: December 10, 1997
SECTION: Chandler Community; Pg. Ev3
BYLINE: Edythe Jensen
DATELINE: Gilbert, Arizona
The Arizona Republic reports that the morning sun no longer shines on some homes in the Islands. The patio homes are in the shadow of a grocery store giant under construction to the east, and two neighborhood leaders are worrying about future noise and traffic.
"The darned thing is so big, so much bigger than anyone thought it would be," Jerry Dickson said in the report, of the Smith's Food & Drug store under construction on the northwestern corner of Cooper and Warner roads. Dickson lives in the Costain patio home development next to the Smith's site. Some of his neighbors' back fences will become the rear wall of the store's loading dock.
The article describes how Town Planning Director Scott Anderson said the corner has been zoned for a grocery store since 1986, and its 60-foot setbacks from neighbors meet current town requirements. Trees eventually will be planted between the store and Costain neighbors, he said in the article. But any time a large commercial development is built next to neighborhoods, Anderson said, the town gets complaints from people who didn't check with zoning offices before they purchased a home. Dickson said he checked but had no clue the store would be so big or that it would put its loading docks so close to houses. "I work evenings, and if I hear those big refrigerated trucks early in the morning, I'm calling the police," he said. That won't do him any good, police Sgt. Randy McLaws said. As long as the noise comes from business activity permitted in a commercial zone, it's legal, he said.
According to the article, Arnold Maldonado, president of the Costain at the Islands Homeowners Association, said he is hearing increasing number of complaints about Smith's from his neighbors. "Some of the construction work is going on at night, and we're not at all happy about it," he said. Anderson said Gilbert has no laws against night construction noise in commercial areas. Smith's officials said the store is scheduled to open in the spring, but no opening date has been set.
"Gilbert has enough grocery stores already," Dickson said in the article. "There's a Fry's across the street, and an ABCO within walking distance. Why do we need another one?" Marketing experts have the answer: growth. For the past two years, more than 250 houses have been built every month in Gilbert. A farm town of 5,000 in 1980, Gilbert today is home to about 75,000. A new Safeway recently opened at Val Vista Drive and Elliot Road. Smith's isn't the only new store now under construction in town; an Albertsons at Power and Baseline roads also is scheduled for a spring 1998 opening. Two additional stores at Val Vista Drive and Warner Road are in the planning stages. Zoning already has been set on all these locations, Anderson said, so there's nothing neighbors can do at this point. The only question before residents now is: "Paper or plastic?"
PUBLICATION: The Associated Press
DATE: December 10, 1997
SECTION: International News
BYLINE: Sue Leeman
DATELINE: London, England
The Associated Press reports how some of London's tourist areas long troubled by traffic noise are up for some improvements. The report describes London's Trafalgar Square: Pigeons. Stone lions. Lord Nelson on a fluted column. And, of course, the relentless roar of traffic. Those are the impressions carried home by the millions of tourists who trek through Trafalgar Square, home of the National Gallery and a major traffic hub located at the geographic center of modern London. But soon, visitors can scratch traffic from the list.
The article goes on to describe how in a millennium revamp, the famed plaza and nearby Parliament Square are to be radically redesigned to end the tyranny of traffic - congestion that one commentator noted had turned London's noble squares into "heartless traffic islands." Under new plans, tourists would be able to stroll unimpeded across both Trafalgar and Parliament squares, stopping for tea at sidewalk cafes. The proposal also calls for a wall of water jets near the Houses of Parliament, creating a changing vista and masking any remnant traffic noise. Trafalgar Square, a must-see spot for London tourists, is a World Heritage Site incorporating 170 historic buildings. It honors Lord Nelson's last and greatest victory the 1805 rout of French and Spanish navies off Cape Trafalgar on the southwest coast of Spain.
According to the article a renowned architect, Sir Norman Foster, has been commissioned by the Westminster City Council to make the area more friendly to pedestrians. Foster's $ 32 million plan involves closing the road on the north side of the square, creating a pedestrian area stretching from the porticoed National Gallery to Nelson on his plinth at the southern end of the square. The south side of Parliament Square would be closed to create a pedestrian precinct linking the square with Westminster Abbey. A second, more radical option involves also barring cars although not buses from the east and west sides of Trafalgar Square, and shutting St. Margaret's Street, which runs between the Houses of Parliament and the abbey. Foster says the plan "will reinvigorate London's great squares, which are essentially dead at present." Critics, however, fear the plan may simply aggravate traffic congestion in other areas as drivers are forced to make detours. "Pedestrianization will make no difference unless London's whole traffic problem is solved" by charging drivers to bring their cars into the center, said Bob Oddy of the Licensed Taxi Drivers' Association. Foster and his associates say the changes would only slightly add to congestion. They concede that journeys could take longer, but say that could help cut the number of accidents.
The article goes on to say how there long have been calls to redesign the area. Jonathan Clancey in The Guardian noted last month that in "money-first London, public spaces are at best a nuisance to be tolerated by the engine of commerce, at worst a profligate waste of land that could be put to much better use." "Both squares have become little more than heartless traffic islands," he said. Foster's associates consulted 130 organizations before producing their plans, which were scrutinized by more than 1,400 members of the public. Now a final plan is to be drawn and the work could begin before 2000, Westminster City Council spokeswoman Tanya Stephens said. The council will apply for funds from Britain's highly successful national lottery.
According to the article, Paul Watters of the Automobile Association said his group favors the less radical approach. "It would be better to do things incrementally than go for the grand slam, so the plan can be revoked if it runs into major problems," he said. But The Civic Trust, a group advocating urban regeneration, backs the more sweeping option. "The government must not shilly-shally," said its director, Michael Gwilliam. "If we can't curb traffic in the heart of London, with all of its public transport, then where can we?"
PUBLICATION: Chicago Daily Herald
DATE: December 10, 1997
SECTION: News; Pg. 4
BYLINE: Matthew Nickerson
DATELINE: Elmhurst, Illinois
The Chicago Daily Herald reports that area schools are fed up with the noise from the nearby O'Hare International airport. One school intends to sue the city for soundproofing.
The report describes how this autumn should have been an unusually quiet one at Immaculate Conception High School. Class discussions, musicals and hallway chatter all should be happening at the Elmhurst school without the customary interruptions from jets roaring overhead. But because of what Immaculate Conception calls a broken promise the school continues to be buffeted by noise from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. School leaders refuse to turn the other cheek, and are demanding the city of Chicago pay for soundproofing to stop the plane noise. To back up their demand, Immaculate Conception in September filed a lawsuit against the city asking for $ 7.6 million. The two sides will meet Friday to try to negotiate an out-of-court settlement.
But meanwhile, according to the report, students and teachers complain they shouldn't have to put up with the situation. "It's not fair," said Cindy Thomas, an English teacher. The Wood Dale woman said she had been excited after hearing more than a year ago the city of Chicago had pledged money for soundproofing. It looked as if there would be no need anymore for Thomas' time-out signal, which she uses to halt class when a 727 thunders overhead. Despite her humorous antics, the interruptions irk her, Thomas said. A flyover lasts only seconds, but the interruption can last 10 minutes, she said, when you include the time it takes to calm students down and get them focused again. "If I'm in a classroom with students and the jets are going over, I know I have to make an adaptation with my teaching," said Immaculate Conception Pastor Gerald Riva, who teaches theology. Once, more than an adjustment had to be made, he said. A summer outdoor theater was canceled because of the noise.
The article goes on to describe how Immaculate Conception has not only a high school but also a grade school on its campus near downtown Elmhurst, five miles from O'Hare. Some 860 students are affected by aircraft noise, officials said. "I think it definitely hurts the learning process," said senior Sarah Platt of Elmhurst. Students from outside of Elmhurst are surprised by the noise, according to Platt. "They're like, 'whoa,' " she said. Riva had hoped decades of noise were coming to an end when a representative from Chicago's Department of Aviation offered to pay for insulation in spring 1996. "Chicago said this offer represented a new spirit of cooperation and that Chicago wished to avoid unnecessary lawsuits," he wrote in a letter to parishioners.
According to the article, the offer, which Riva considered a promise, had followed a court victory by a group of DuPage County public schools located near O'Hare. They received millions of dollars to soundproof their buildings. St. Charles Borromeo in Bensenville, a Roman Catholic school like Immaculate Conception, also was given money. Soundproofing at St. Charles' grade school has improved conditions "extremely," according to Father Don McLaughlin. "The students are able to concentrate," he said. Immaculate Conception officials hoped for similar soundproofing, but were dismayed when Chicago offered only $ 2.9 million for sound insulation. That may sound generous, but Riva said his school needs $ 7.6 million, and can't afford to make up the difference. Chicago officials maintain the extra money isn't needed for soundproofing. Immaculate Conception, among other things, is asking for soundproofing for areas not typically used for education, city officials said. "What Immaculate Conception wants is to renovate," said aviation department spokeswoman Monique Bond. But Immaculate Conception claims it uses all four of its buildings for education. Riva says classes are held in the rectory, for instance.
The report says, finally, frustrated with Chicago's stance, the school sued in DuPage County Circuit Court. Immaculate Conception's lawyer, Joe Karaganis, said he was optimistic about the meeting with city officials planned for Friday. "It is my hope we are able to resolve it," he said. "It's the spirit of the season. These kids deserve this."
PUBLICATION: Copley News Service
DATE: December 10, 1997
SECTION: State And Regional
BYLINE: John Rofe
DATELINE: Los Angeles, California
The Copley News Service reports that a Los Angeles City Council committee Wednesday made a series of 11th-hour changes to a gas-powered leaf blower ban that goes into effect next month, but rejected a proposal to further delay its enforcement.
According to the report the chief change recommended by the council's Environmental and Waste Management Committee would reduce a violation of the ban from a misdemeanor to an infraction punishable by a $100 fine and $170 in court-imposed penalties. The panel also authorized three city departments to work with police to enforce the ban. One of the agencies, the Bureau of Street Maintenance, was directed to establish a 24-hour hotline for residents to report violations.
But, the report goes on, the committee rejected a request by Councilman Richard Alarcon to phase in the ban over five years. Alarcon said the delay would allow the city to deal with opposition from leaf-blower manufacturers and gardeners. Under Alarcon's proposal, the noisier leaf blowers would be barred within 250 feet of residential areas the first year, within 500 feet the second, 750 the third, 1,000 the fourth, and throughout the city by the fifth year. "I can assure you that there will be more of a consensus in support of this five years from now than there is today," said Alarcon, who represents the northeast San Fernando Valley.
According to the article, the panel quickly rejected the proposal, which reflects the demands of the Latin American Gardeners' Association. Leaders of the group, which has protested the ban since it was first approved by the council last year, plan a march on City Hall when the changes come before the council next week. The panel's vote also dismayed the leaf blower industry. Lawyers for the makers of the devices, who have sued the city over the ordinance, said Wednesday that newer gas-powered blowers make less noise and are a suitable alternative to a ban. They also claimed the proposed hotline would create a confrontational situation between residents and gardeners. "We don't believe there is a problem now," said Gail Gordon, an attorney for two leaf blower manufacturers. The hotline, she said, would create "a multitude of confrontations and unpleasant encounters."
The report describes how the City Council first approved the ban on gas-powered leaf blowers last December. The law became effective July 1, but the council ordered the police department not to cite violators until Jan. 1 to allow gardeners to become aware of the prohibition and convert to quieter electric-powered devices. The delay was also designed to allow the police to come up with a way to enforce the ban. Police officials said they did not have the ability to crack down on violators without assistance.
The article says supporters of the ban including former Batgirl Julie Newmar and actors Peter Graves and Meredith Baxter, all of whom live on the Westside said they were less concerned by noise pollution than the particulate matter the blowers throw into the air for all to breathe. Opponents, including several council members, said the ban would unfairly disadvantage blue-collar gardeners by making their jobs more time-consuming. Converting to electric blowers or using rakes would likely mean they could take on fewer jobs, they said. Under the original ordinance, first time violations of the ban would be considered an infraction, the second a misdemeanor punishable by a fine and possible jail time. The proposed change would keep the fine and penalties at $270 even for repeat offenses.
PUBLICATION: The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)
DATE: December 10, 1997
SECTION: News Pg. 01a
BYLINE: Nina Walfoort
DATELINE: Louisville, Kentucky area
The Courier Journal evaluates the Louisville, Kentucky's Regional Airport Authority's plan to build a new subdivision for people overwhelmed by airport noise. For people displaced by noise to get comparable homes, builders say they must get breaks on land costs or fees.
The report asks can you build a decent house for $ 75,000 or less? The airport authority says yes, but private builders and developers say it can't be done unless the air board gets some breaks on land costs, development fees or materials. "There's no way you can build $50,000-to-$75,000 homes unless someone's giving you something," developer Jim Walser said. Airport authority officials say they don't know yet what breaks they will get - if any. But they contend they can build $ 75,000 houses even if they don't get any discounts or donations.
The article says Bob Astorino, director of the Housing Partnership, a non-profit group that provides and promotes affordable housing, said new suburban houses in that price range can be built in Jefferson County - and have been. He cited River Green, a subdivision his organization developed in southwestern Jefferson County, where the average home price is about $ 77,000. But he said it takes "the proper mix of resources and partnerships" and may require donations, utility-fee waivers or reduced profit margins. "It's getting a break somewhere," he said. But "when the planets align, this can happen."
The article describes how the airport board has proposed building 450 houses on Cedar Creek Road in southern Jefferson County for some of the residents of neighborhoods south and east of the airport who have been bombarded by noise from the airport's new runways. The target of $75,000 was set because that's in the middle of the range of what the agency has been paying to relocate people who have been moving on their own. The quality of the homes will likely hinge on the extent to which the air board is able to subsidize costs; that in turn would determine the price at which the agency can offer lots to builders. If the agency can sell lots for $ 1,000, builders could pour $74,000 into each home's construction, minus their profit. If the lots go at market rates of about $20,000, much less money would go into each house. "I would say they could not build suitable market-rate houses for $75,000 if they have to pay market rates for the lots," real-estate appraiser J. Michael Jones said. But because the developer - the airport board - is a government agency, it has two advantages: It doesn't have to make a profit, and other government agencies may help with the cost, he said.
The report goes on to say that before they endorse the Cedar Creek proposal, residents of the airport neighborhoods say they want to know what they're getting. "Everybody likes the area, but they want to see the quality of the house," said Stephanie Killion, president of the Edgewood West Neighborhood Association. Doug Stern, spokesman for The Corradino Group, which is managing the project, declined to say what land cost is included in the $75,000 target cost. He and project manager Burt Deutsch said the question is irrelevant because the goal is to create a house and lot that appraises at about $75,000 and can be fairly swapped for the airport homes. Generally, land, roads and utilities take about 20 percent of the cost of houses built by private developers.
The report describes how in the Autumn Woods subdivision off Blue Lick Road, Jim Brooks was able to build a basic home offered for sale at $80,000, including $18,000 for the lot. That left $62,000 for materials, labor and profit. The house has about 1,020 square feet, two baths and three bedrooms. (Brooks said he could have built the same house for $2,000 less if he had left out special ceiling treatments.) A tour of the house reveals a clean, compact home with oak cabinets in the kitchen, carpeting throughout, plenty of closets and a master bedroom with its own bath and a small bay window. "It's a real nice, cozy home that gives that first-time home buyer a little more for their money," said Walser, Autumn Woods' developer. But Walser and other developers question whether people in the airport area who may have owned their homes for decades and made significant improvements in them would accept starter homes. "We can build a 1,000-square-foot house all vinyl, but I don't think a lot of people moving out of (the airport neighborhoods) will want to settle for that," builder Ron Covington said.
The article describes how Frances and Jesse Jones, who live in Minor Lane Heights, have a 33-yearold home comparable to the new, $80,000 house in Autumn Woods. Both are brick, the square footage is about the same, and the layouts are similar. The new house has a second bath, which the Joneses don't, but their home has a two- car garage with a large, heated workroom attached. "I have to have a garage, " Frances Jones said. Brooks said the Autumn Woods house would be priced at $98,000 with a garage, and it wouldn't have the workroom.
The report goes on to say that airport officials say they decided to build a new community for residents to speed up relocation and because the stock of small, affordable houses in the area is drying up. Hundreds of those houses have been consumed by the more than 2,300 families who have already left airport neighborhoods. The airport authority has applied for $10 million from the Federal Aviation Administration to build replacements for about 1,620 houses in Edgewood, Minor Lane Heights, South Park View and neighborhoods scattered along Preston Highway; $3 million has been committed so far. The airport board says it makes sense to build the new houses because what it pays for conventional relocations has been rising in recent years. The average cost of relocating a household increased from $47,500 in 1992 to $68,700 in 1996. The replacement payment the difference between what a house is appraised for and what the buyer has to pay for a comparable house is now about $13,000. That is about the amount the airport authority has projected it will cost to buy and develop each lot on Cedar Creek Road, according to its application for the FAA money. According to the article many people who live near the airport say they're concerned that their houses are too large and have been improved too much to qualify for the relocation program, which at this point will be limited to people whose current homes are from 800 to 1,200 square feet or to people willing to move into homes that size. Minor Lane Heights Mayor Fred Williams said the majority of houses in his small city have additions or a second story, and almost all of them have garages. Many residents say they don't think they'd be able to get the same size house in the proposed subdivision. Charles Beavers, who lives on Orchard Avenue in Edgewood, has about 1,000 square feet, but he's added two bedrooms in his basement. And he said he isn't interested in the airport's relocation plan because even though he has just one child living at home, "I don't want to think about anything under four bedrooms." Bart Whitmore of Minor Lane Heights said he wants a house with at least the 1,900 square feet he now has. He's looking for houses in the Fairdale area and Bullitt County. What the airport is building "wouldn't be comparable," he said.
The report goes on to say the Regional Airport Authority project officials say it's too early to discuss what kind of homes people will get, but they say the houses may be too small for some people. "It's not meant for everyone," Deutsch, the project manager, said. Stern, the Corradino Group spokesman, said the 287 acres on Cedar Creek Road on which the airport authority has an option will be purchased at about fair market value. Private developers say that probably means about $10,000 an acre. But airport officials say the Metropolitan Sewer District will waive a $936-perhouse "capacity charge" for a total savings of as much as $421,200.
The article describes how in the Housing Partnership's River Green subdivision, the land was donated by Jefferson County and the MSD fee was waived. But Astorino said that even if the land had been purchased, the houses would have cost only about $2,000 more apiece. But some builders cautioned potential buyers to carefully monitor construction quality. In general, new construction will have better insulation and lower utility costs, and many Minor Lane Heights homeowners, whose current homes are on concrete slabs, will benefit because the airport plans to build the new houses on crawl spaces. But builders advise that not all $75,000 homes are created equal. "You can pay $10,000 more with one builder because he builds quality and another one just cuts every corner," builder Ray Haines said. Deutsch said the proof will be in the pudding: The airport agency plans to build models on the site possibly by next summer and people can come and judge for themselves. "They're going to have a pretty good idea of the quality," he said. "And they can make their judgment yes or no."
PUBLICATION: The Evening Post (Wellington, New Zealand)
DATE: December 10, 1997
SECTION: News; National; Pg. 5
BYLINE: John King
DATELINE: Wellington, New Zealand
ACTIVISTS, INDIVIDUALS, AND GROUPS MENTIONED: Sue Kedgley, member, Residents Airport Noise Action Group
The Evening Post reports that proposals to charge noisy Boeing 737 aircraft more for landing at Wellington Airport in New Zealand have been deferred until February.
According to the article, Cr Sue Kedgley wants to charge Air New Zealand more for landing its Boeing 737 jets there. The extra money could be used to help insulate 500 homes nearest the airport against noise. However, at this month's Wellington City Council cityscape committee meeting it was decided to postpone discussion to allow more time to consider an Environment Court ruling, Kedgley said. The Environment Court issued its decision on November 20. This ratified an agreement on managing airport noise, known as a consent order, reached by the airport, the council, the Board of Airline Representatives and the Residents Airport Noise Action Group. Kedgley said it had been decided to hold up a discussion paper on the idea until after the court ruling. However, this had not allowed enough time to prepare for discussions of the proposal at the committee's December 3 meeting. It would now be discussed in February.
The report goes on to describe how Environment Court Judge Shonagh Kenderdine had questioned the proposal after it was reported in The Post on November 11, nine days before her decision was issued. Kedgley said it had been explained that the proposal was looking at how to implement the air noise management policy. A council study indicated that the airport was going to exceed its allowable noise limit in six years. Penalising noisy aircraft was a better option than reducing the overall number of aircraft using the airport, she said. Air New Zealand spokesman David Beatson said last month that the charges would be discriminatory. It said its Boeing 737s met the air noise rules after they had been hush-kitted at a cost of $50 million.
PUBLICATION: The Ledger (Lakeland, FL)
DATE: December 10, 1997
SECTION: Metro; Pg. B1
BYLINE: Tom Palmer
DATELINE: Bartow, Florida
The Ledger reports that the Polk County, Florida 5-year-old noise ordinance needs to be fine-tuned to make it easier to enforce, county commissioners were told Tuesday.
County commissioners in 1992 approved the first noise ordinance in unincorporated Polk County, spurred by complaints about noise from nightclubs and bars near residential areas, even though the final version exempted commercial areas. Commissioners agreed last March to review the county's noise ordinance after getting persistent complaints about cannons being fired to discourage marauding birds from eating crops near Lake Wales. The issue arose again in September following noise complaints during a music festival at the Polk County Fairgrounds.
The article goes on to describe how the ordinance contains 23 specific exemptions and doesn't cover common nuisances like barking dogs is part of the problem, Judd, of the Polk County Sheriff's office said. "People in Polk County believe we have a noise ordinance, but it is limited," he said. Judd said not only is the vagueness difficult for deputies to deal with in the field, the State Attorney's Office often refuses to prosecute cases because of the number of loopholes.
The article says Judd suggested the following:
Clarify whether the deputy should cite the occupant or the owner.
Expand the ordinance to make it apply countywide to cover situations where the noise problems cross city-county boundaries.
Modify the blanket exemptions for commercial and industrial property by limiting the type of noise allowed or the time it's allowed to occur.
Examine the exemption on "noncommercial public gatherings" and put some time limits on them to eliminate the possibility of all-night parties.
Add the section of the county animal-control ordinance applying to barking dogs to the noise ordinance.
The report said Judd also discussed the Zen Festival in September. The festival generated more th