Airport land use still up in the air

Airport plan in conflict with city's plan for future housing

BY ANNE QUINN

The SLO airport is on a collision course with the city’s efforts to resolve its housing shortage, and residents are already complaining.

The just-completed Airport Land Use Plan amendment, a state-mandated blueprint for the airport’s future, restricts construction of housing and schools near the airport. But that’s just where the city’s General Plan, completed in 1994, projected growth to go.

If the Airport Land Use Plan amendment is adopted, it will substantially reduce or eliminate planned housing in the Margarita and Dalidio areas–about half of all the housing units proposed in the city’s general plan.

If the airport amendment is overruled, as it can be by a four-fifths vote of the SLO City Council, airport advocates fear that housing will be allowed to encroach on the airport, and soon it would be perceived as a nuisance and a safety hazard. This has happened in other cities, such as Oxnard, where the airport is scheduled to close in September, 2005.

The impact of the Airport Land Use Plan on the city’s plans for housing is bad news for Housing Authority director George Moylan. He had to close the county’s waiting list for affordable housing in November 1999 when it topped 2,200 names. Moylan said the city specified two sites for affordable housing within the Margarita area, which is almost 200 acres bounded by South Higuera and Broad streets and Tank Farm Road.

"If the airport plan puts this in jeopardy, then from our perspective, there has to be more density in the parts [of town] that aren’t affected by the airport. The city was trying to develop along its current lines of growth, and not take all the open space. Most of our acreage today is used up in single-family housing on 6,500-square-foot lots. While that’s what we all desire, it isn’t very efficient. It’s probably not realistic in the coming years," he said.

But building more housing near the airport may not be the best solution to the housing shortage either, if a look at neighborhoods already impacted by the airport–neighborhoods like Rolling Hills, Country Club Estates, and Chumash Mobile Home Park–is any indication. There were 325 noise complaints between June 1999 and July 2000, according to assistant airport manager Martin Pehl.

The issue will be coming to a head later this month as both the Airport Land Use Plan amendment and the Margarita Specific Plan undergo environmental review. In the meantime, advocates for both sides have been doing a lot of finger-pointing, while accusing each other of operating within a vacuum.

The Airport Land Use Commission has said it has two main concerns regarding housing near the airport. First, the noise of the airplanes can be a nuisance for residents. Second, the more development that goes on near the airport, the greater the chance a plane might crash into a residential neighborhood and do serious harm.

But both Patricia Wilmore, a legislative analyst for the SLO Chamber of Commerce, and Glen Matteson, a long-range planner for the city of SLO, oppose the Airport Commission's contention that housing and airports are a bad mix. They argue that the commission is being too general in its restrictions.

"Honestly, when they first proposed the amendment, there were no maps showing areas they said needed overflight protection"–that is, protection from potential plane crashes–"[and] no diagrams to show where they were talking about," said Wilmore. Matteson confirms that the city’s biggest problem with the commission is that the latter hasn’t been specific enough as to where housing shouldn't go.

"When Airport Land Use commissioner Robert Tefft spoke before the Chamber’s legislative-economic action committee, it was obvious that he was unfamiliar with the housing needs of SLO. He’s a very smart man, very well versed in aeronautics, but what he doesn’t understand is land-use planning here. We need to engage the commission in a dialog," Wilmore added.

Former Chamber president Bill Thoma, who attended the meeting, asks, "Where did the breakdown in communication occur? I don’t know the players, but I couldn’t help but wonder, where were the members of the commission during the General Plan update? There were at least 75 meetings in the course of two years, some of them going until 2 a.m."

Dave Darbyshire, president of the SLO Pilots Association, went to several general plan update meetings over the years. What struck him, he recalls now, is that "I never heard the airport even mentioned once. Never was there any consideration of safety issues or noise problems. The city acted as if the airport wasn’t even there."

While the city was updating its General Plan, county staff was working on a revision and update of the 1973 Airport Land Use Plan. The result was an revision that would have been consistent with the city’s plan, so at the time there didn’t seem to be any conflict.

However, according to Airport Land Use Commissioner Mac Gleim, a retired Navy rear admiral and the former commanding officer of Lemoore Naval Air Station, the staff revision "was not comprehensive–the results were not what we would have liked or expected and wouldn’t have been consistent with county and state requirements." It was shelved.

The commission started over. They were given a new county staff liaison, Bill Robeson. They formed their own technical committee. Working with Robeson, who Gleim called "sharp," the technical committee succeeded in producing an amended plan rather than a full revision. This amended plan met state and county requirements, and the commission is happy with it, Gleim said. However, the amended plan runs counter to the city’s plans for future housing.

The commission’s critics question how open they were about their work and if they solicited any public input.

Commissioner Tefft insists that the commission’s meetings were publicly announced, "even though we weren’t required to do that," he said. But Wilmore, Thoma, and Matteson counter that under the state’s Brown Act, which requires notice of public meetings and published agendas, the commission was indeed required to have public input.

Moylan went to a commission meeting several months ago. "They are all pilots," he said. "They talked about a lot of technical issues and frankly, I didn’t understand much of what they said."

Was the commission ignorant of the city’s plans, as charged by its critics? No, said Matteson. The commissioners know about the city’s plans but they don’t approve of them, he said. He confirmed that copies of the General Plan draft update had been given to the commission’s county staff liaison and to the technical committee that drafted the newest airport amendment. "All of their comments up to this point have led me to believe that their preference is that there not be development in the Margarita area," he said.

At the same time, Matteson confirmed that "the city acknowledged when we adopted the General Plan that it was not entirely consistent with the Airport Land Use Plan," yet it went ahead.

"They are the ones working in a vacuum," said Airport Land Use commissioner Tefft. Tefft claims the city violated state law by not sending the Margarita Specific Plan to the Airport Land Use Commission for approval before releasing it, and he has sent a letter to the city requesting that the city meet with the commission about the Margarita Specific Plan before public hearings are held.

Finger-pointing aside, how the city can grow and at the same time manage to protect the airport?

SLO is not the only city facing this dilemma. Last year the city of Brawley approved a housing project next to the Brawley Municipal Airport over the objections of the Imperial County Airport Land Use Commission, and now it’s being sued by the California Pilots Association.

In Redwood City, pilots and homeowners formed a coalition to oppose a tall building project near the San Carlos Airport. The CPA got involved when negotiations between the city and the coalition broke down. A lawsuit was filed. That brought the developer to the table and a compromise was reached. The building was lowered, and the developer agreed to an aviation easement on the entire project.

Efforts are being made by the SLO Chamber of Commerce to get a dialog going. On Jan. 25 commissioner Tefft will speak at the SLO Chamber’s monthly program, Good Morning SLO.

Wilmore said that the Chamber has been very active in stimulating discussion because the Airport Plan runs counter to its "vision" for the city and conflicts with many of its established policies.

"Where else can housing for the city go?" she asks. "This will have a domino effect. In order for businesses to come here they have to know they can attract employees [who in turn] can get housing. If their employees have to live in places like Atascadero and commute to San Luis, it increases the traffic and pollution, which we’re against," said Wilmore. "The Airport Land Use Commission is operating in this box that has to do with the airport alone."

"If development is inconsistent with the airport, then as commissioners we are legally obligated to say it’s inconsistent," argues Tefft, stressing that the commission’s responsibility is not only to protect the interests of the airport, but also to protect the community from the airport.

When asked if the commission was aware of the city’s recent $3 million purchase of the Damon Garcia Ranch for playing fields, commissioner Roger Oxborrow, who also manages the Paso Robles Airport said, "Playing fields, golf courses, and open space are the best friend of an airport. Playing fields are a more acceptable use than housing. There are still safety concerns, but you’ve gotten rid of the noise nuisance factor. When you are a pilot in trouble, a parking lot for a mall is a beautiful thing–it gives you a place to go. What kills you is when they start talking about putting houses and schools in there. They are talking about putting in senior residences three stories high, and I am still finding chunks of aluminum from crashes in the [Dalidio] field," he said.

The Chamber’s Wilmore believes that the problem lies in the commission’s choice to designate the SLO County Regional Airport as rural rather than suburban. Each designation has different levels of acceptable residential noise compatibility. "A rural designation says that a level of 55 decibels is acceptable and suburban increases that level to 60 decibels. If the commission would designate our airport as suburban, then the city’s proposed housing would be allowed," she said.

"All these noise contours tell you the average noise level. You use that as an indicator of what kind of uses you can have," said commissioner Oxborrow. "San Luis Obispo has done an excellent job in the area east of Higuera Street, where there are commercial uses such as Food for Less and light industrial manufacturing plants, which generate their own noise. These uses are perfectly compatible with the airport."

When asked what the Chamber will say to future residents of these new housing areas if they complain about airport noise, Wilmore said "people who chose to live there can be asked to sign a statement saying that they are aware of the potential noise before they move in."

"That’s called an "aviation easement," said Oxborrow. "In reality, it doesn’t work as a legal release. What it does is serve as a notification that a resident accepts the intensity of the noise as it exits when he moves in. If the intensity of scope increases, if the airport gets bigger and noisier all bets are off, the resident will complain that he only accepted noise at the level it was when he moved in there," he said.

Rolling Hills resident Don Pimentel has an answer for people who ask him why, if he complains about the noise so much, did he chose to live near the airport. He said, "I want to live in a community where people do not lie, " and then explains himself.

Pimentel’s background is in architecture and planning, but he will often introduce himself as the son of a biologist. After 7:30 a.m., he can no longer be reached by phone. He is out in his backyard, cultivating a little Eden. With skill and the techniques taught him by his father, Pimentel has produced roses with blossoms the size of saucers. Bright blossoms are visible from deep inside the house. Lacy branches of well-pruned trees are heavy with fruit–pomegranate and loquat. "I was in my back yard one week ago and this jet flew over. The noise so dominated everything, I know it was the ego of the pilot."

Pimentel bought his house in 1985. "I remember riding home years ago listening to the Dave Congalton show and I heard the former airport manager say we will never have jets fly into the San Luis Airport," he recalled. "Two years ago, I heard the same gentleman take the same position in a public meeting. Within months, he had changed his tune," he said.

Private jet travel at the airport is on the increase as SLO becomes a magnet for high-tech firms.

Country Club Estates resident Karl Koenig said he and his wife were told about the airport by the real estate agent when they bought their house in the Country Club Estates in 1996. "We were told it wasn’t much of a problem, [that] there were very few complaints about it–just once in a while when a new pilot flew in too low."

What Koenig and his wife weren’t informed of was a common practice known as "touch and go." Pilots learning landing and takeoff take off, circle, and return to the tarmac, touching down only briefly before immediately lifting off again, then land and take off again. "They’ll do it over and over, for an hour," said Koenig. "When they keep flying in a circle, it drives the golfers nuts," he said. Sometimes, he said, "the same little airplane flies around your house six times in an hour, and when you get a little stinker like that, its frustrating. I remember telling [assistant airport manager] Martin [Pehl] that Mrs. Koenig was ready to get a ground-to-air missile," he said.

Pehl agrees that the Country Club Estates couldn't be situated in a worse place because the houses are located right where pilots turn to go into the airport.

At first, when they complained, residents felt that the airport "soft-soaped" their complaints, said Koenig, who chairs the airport noise abatement committee for Country Club Estates. "I accused the airport management of wet-nursing our committee. Martin [Pehl] stormed off, he was so mad. The next day he apologized. I apologized too. Ever since then we have made real progress."

Pehl formed the Noise Working Group, a coalition of pilots, airport management representatives, and residents from all affected areas, including Country Club Estates, Laguna Lake, and South Higuera Street. A complaint hotline was instituted. Now, when a complaint comes in, one of three people Pehl has designated, each equipped with a cell phone, responds to it immediately. Complaints about corporate jets, which are louder than many other planes, and which are flown at irregular hours, brought a representative from PG&E, which uses corporate jets, to the table.

The group has produced a brochure for pilots listing voluntary steps they can take to mitigate noise impacts on the community. "In it we ask pilots to respect a voluntary curfew and not land or take off in Stage II jets between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., unless its an emergency," he said. "I stress voluntary because legally there is no way certain planes can be restricted from one airport and not from another. Airports have to be viewed as a network–an entire system," he said.

"I’m going to check into these legalities with the FAA, because where I live it is just getting incredible," said airport neighbor Larry Stabler. "What’s really getting me are all these smaller planes. People are starting to fly into SLO for lunch [or] commute daily to the Bay Area. They are really gunning it over me to get over the ridge. Anybody flying north comes right over us. The airport has a plan to asking pilots to go up to 1,500 feet straight off the runway and go over [Highway] 101 before turning. That puts the plane over commercial buildings and open space. But its only voluntary, and only certain planes will do it. When it gets bad, a plane goes overhead every 30 seconds. People say, 'Why don’t you move?' Well, it’s really not that simple."

"To me, it’s simple," said SLO Pilots Association president Darbyshire. "San Luis Obispo needs to decide if it wants to have an airport. If they do, then they have to support it."

Housing Authority director George Moylan sees his options for providing affordable housing shrinking. To Moylan, who knows that when his agency cannot provide housing to people some of them have to sleep by the creek, solutions are anything but simple. Æ

New Times reporter Anne Quinn flies occasionally, always on silent brooms. E-mail story ideas and comments to her at [email protected].