As expected, the Council adopted Item 8.1 (Airport Master Plan Improvements) on the Council agenda this evening, but with the following directions included. In the coming weeks, CAAP will be monitoring the city's progress regarding these directions and evaluating just what this means to the neighborhoods in real improvement of the increasing noise and air pollution problems we experience.

We will continue to keep you informed, and we thank you for your support.

Lenora
Citizens Against Airport Pollution

Message delivered by Lenora to City Council

San Jose City Counciil Meeting - Nov 13, 2001 - Agenda and background information

To: The Honorable City Council
From: Mayor Ron Gonzales, Councilmembers Ken Yeager, Cindy Chavez, David Cortese, Linda LeZotte

Subject: Airport Master Plan Improvements
Date: November 13, 2001

Recommendation

We recommend that the City Council include the following directions to Airport staff in its motion of approval for Item 8.1 regarding improvements to the Airport Master Plan:

Direct the Administration to work with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to investigate the feasibility of installing air quality monitors in Airport-area residential neighborhoods and report back to the Council within 120 days.
Devote the necessary resources to continue the expeditious implementation of the City's Acoustical Treatment Program.
Direct the City Attorney to identify the appropriate local and federal actions and process necessary to impose fines and penalties on aircraft operators for violation of the existing Airport curfew, or to allow incentives for compliance, and report back to Council within 90 days.
Direct the administration to investigate parking patterns and work with the surrounding neighborhoods to determine the level of airport related parking on neighborhood streets.
Direct the Airport to include in future terminal planning, and in reports to Council on terminal design, the accommodation of pedestrian and bicycle access.
Direct the Administration to compile a summary report to Council within 90 days on aircraft run-up procedures and activity, correlation to noise complaints, potential noise reduction technologies and existing Municipal Code and EIR run-up noise mitigation commitments.
Adopt as Council policy that before the Council considers an amendment to the Municipal Code to allow the Airport to expand beyond 40 airline gates, the Administration must update its Master Plan demand forecasts and prepare, in turn, a supplemental or new Airport Master Plan EIR.

Background

The Airport has made recommendations on modifying the Airport Master Plan to better serve and protect customers at the Airport. Some of these modifications include expansion of Terminal Building and Terminal Facilities square footage in a Centralized Terminal Facility. This should help San Jose International Airport improve services depended on by local businesses and residents.

However, an important component that needs to be better addressed is the impact that these modifications will have on surrounding neighborhoods. While making the Airport a world-class facility is an important goal, we must equally ensure that local residents don't suffer from excessive impacts. Assisting the Airport in being a "better neighbor" should therefore be a top priority for this Council.

The City Council has taken various steps to curtail noise impacts at the airport, including establishing Airline Curfew Conformance Plans, exploring ways modify the current curfew to establish fines and other penalties, and insulating houses for excessive noise under the ACT program. It is important that we build upon these successes in a prudent manner when considering modifications to the Airport Master Plan.

Airport Noise Report Line - (408) 452-0707

(24 hour reporting of loud aircraft, curfew penetrations, engine run-ups in the middle of the night)

San Jose Airport Noise Center

The city of San Jose has a new Info line that is a 24/7 fax. The number is 408-277-8500 with four digit codes for the following:

1103 - Airport Acoustical Treatment Program
1106 - Airport Noise Monitoring Center
1109 - General Information

South Bay residents are encouraged to report intrusive aircraft overflight noise on San Francisco Airport's toll free citizen complaint number. Callers with a complaint should state the time, date, duration.

The toll free number is 1 (877) 206-8290

Live Radar Flight Tracks allows you to watch the movement of flights and air traffic patterns currently in use within the Bay Area. This map will show flight tracks of aircraft arriving and departing from SFO, Oakland, and San Jose Airport and other nearby general aviation airports. Red plane icons are arrivals, green are departures, black are General Aviation or small propeller aircraft and helicopters. The white icons are aircraft transiting the area and bypassing local airports. The icon sizes are uniform regardless of the actual size of the aircraft.

Map showing the cummulative effect of 17 of Santa Clara County's leading 'High Tech' Hazardous Air Pollutants identified by SVTC that are contained in the CEP database and have an EPA Benchmark for cancer. The risk for cancer is much higher than the Clean Air Act goal of 1 in 1 million individuals anywhere in Santa Clara County. The cancer risk ranges from 18 to 876 additional cancer cases - a high of over 800 additional cancer cases per million individuals - resulting from exposure to the subset of High Tech chemicals that SVTC has identified.

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