BACKGROUND

The SASY neighborhood lies directly south of the main runway at the Dane County Regional Airport. Neighborhood borders are between 1 and 2.5 miles from the airport. Incoming flights are low enough to read names off the sides of the plane and cause conversations come to a halt while the noise subsides. Besides the obvious environmental impacts on the neighborhood, the airport has a significant impact on the economic well-being of the east side of Madison. It occupies more than 4,000 acres of urban land and controls zoning within 27 square miles.

As Dane County grows, so will the traffic at the airport and its impacts on the SASY neighbhood. Airport staff report that air traffic from 2001 to 2002 increased 8.4%. At this rate, flights will double in 9 years.
 
 

NOISE CONTROL PLAN

For the airport, the primary noise control method is to direct aircraft to land from and take off to the north. This reduces air traffic and its noise above the populated areas of the city such as the SASY neighborhood. This method requires that weather and air traffic cooperate. If there are northernly winds or a lot of air traffic, this method no longer protects Madison residents. The airport recently completed construction of a $26 million Runway 3/21. This runway was to allow more flights to land from and take off to the north.

When weather or air traffic is not favorable, residents in the SASY neighborhood can expect frequent flights. When planning backyard picnics, residents need to wish for pleasant weather, including southernly winds to encourage air traffic to be diverted to the north.

Airport staff also expect to see reductions in noise due to the transition to quieter aircraft. The current noise standards are referred to as Level 3. In the future, airplanes will be implementing Level 4 noise control designs.

MAKING A NOISE COMPLAINT

When noise from air traffic over the neighborhood becomes unacceptable, it is time to call in a complaint to the airport "Noise Hotline". The noise hotline telephone number is 246-5841. The answering maching prompts the caller to answer questions including the day and time of the complaint, type airplane, commerical or military flight, and whether it was incoming or outgoing. The noise complaint officer at the airport will typically call you back to explain the airport's response. A written response may also be sent.

Every six months, the complaints are reviewed and summary is presented at the meeting of the airport Noise Control Committee.

MEETINGS OF THE NOISE CONTROL COMMITTEE

Every six months the airport Noise Control Committee meets to review the noise complaint history, discuss future plans for the airport, and accept public comments. The meetings are usually held in the spring and fall. If you would like to be notified of the next meeting, contact the airport administration office.

Minutes of committee meetings and noise information is available at the Dane County Regional Airport.

NEIGHBORHOOD ISSUES

NOISE IMPACTS

The obvious airport impact on the SASY neighborhood is noise. Incoming flights are low enough to read names off the sides of the plane. Conversations come to a halt while the noise subsides. In some cases, airplanes and especially helicopters will cause a house to shake. Besides the nuisance, noise reduces the quality of life in the neighborhood, and may impact the health of residents.

Here are some actions residents and SASYNA can take to reduce the impacts of airport noise on the SASY neighborhood:

• File noise complaints.
• Attend noise committee meetings.
• Encourage airport staff to improve access to the complaint process by allowing email submission of complaints and addition of the complaint history and noise control committee meeting minutes to the airport web page.
• Encourage airport staff to find better ways to monitor the success of its noise control strategy. When $26 million is spent on a new runway to reduce noise impacts, the airport should spent more than $10 on an answering machine to record complaints. Noise measurements are needed to verify noise model predictions and establish noise levels caused by air traffic over the neighborhood.

Besides the obvious environmental impacts on the neighborhood, the airport has a significant impact on the economic well-being of the east side of Madison. It occupies more than 4,000 acres of urban land and controls zoning within 27 square miles.

With one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, Madison needs more residential housing. But the airport consumes urban land that could be used for housing and opposes future residential development near the airport. People that could live in Madison will live in outlying communities encouraging sprawl in Dane County.

The income of these potential new residents and the business they will generate would improve the economic health of the east side of Madison. Using the current population density of Madison and the mean household income of Wisconsin, the area removed from residential development by the county airport would generate $200 million each year in household income, resulting in $1 billion each year of economic benefits.

Click here to see an aerial view of the airport impact area and the land removed from future residential development.

SASYNA INVOLVEMENT

SASYNA members attend the Airport Noise Committee meetings held every six months.

SASYNA continues to keep people informed of the impacts the airport has on our neighborhood and to push for better control of these impacts. It is a difficult struggle since airport management and county leadership refuse to recognize the impacts on those living on the eastside of Madison and especially on the airport flight paths.

Request for Noise Abatement Improvements

In 2002, SASYNA wrote to Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk requesting improvements in the airport's noise control program. These improvements included installation of an active noise monitoring program, improvements in the counter-flow strategy, establishing a curfew for excessively loud aircraft, improving public access to the success of the program by publishing meeting minutes and creating a web page, improving the composition of the Noise Committee to be more sensitive to neighborhood impacts, and elimination of the F-16 training flights. The full text of the letter can be read here.

Neighborhood residents were rewarded in the winter of 2004 when Dane County supervisors required the airport to conduct an noise control audit during 2005. SASYNA’s call for the audit was first rejected by airport staff and Airport Commissioner Bill White, eastside representative on the county airport committee. SASYNA turned to County Executive Kathy Falk, who also rejected the call for an audit. Read the orginal SASYNA request for the audit to County Executive Falk here. Read her rejection of the audit here.

On behalf of neighborhood residents, Supervisor John Hendrick then proposed the audit as an airport budget amendment, which was also rejected by County Executive Kathy Falk. When her budget moved on to the Dane County board, SASYNA and residents rallied to contact county supervisors and ask for their support. In the end, the noise audit amendment was added to the airport budget.

The audit will track the effectiveness of the airport’s noise control program by monitoring all flights over the city. Previously, airport staff only investigated flights if neighbors bothered to call the noise hotline (246-5841). The hotline has become increasing archaic as residents have stopped calling since their trouble only resulted in a form letter and no noticeable improvements. With the audit, airport staff will check all flights over populated areas of Madison to determine the reason for not following the noise abatement plan, which sends planes to north of the county airport, away from residents.  Reasons for not following the plan might include weather, excessive traffic, or a clear violation of the plan. Last year, a short-term audit had shown that 2% of incoming and 1% of outgoing flights had intentionally violated the plan. Over 40% of the flights could not follow the plan due to “aircraft saturation” or too much traffic at the same time. Neighborhood residents will need to closely watch this last reason for not following the airport’s noise control plan. With calls for more flights at the county airport to improve the county’s business climate, alternative noise control methods may be needed to protect our neighborhood’s quality of life.

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

If you would like to share your opinion on the control of aircraft noise and other airport impacts on the neighborhood, here are several people to contact and their email addresses:

Bill White, Chair, Airport Commissioner

John Hendrick, District 6 County Supervisor

Kathleen M. Falk, Dane County Executive

Dave Cieslewicz, Mayor of Madison

Judy Olson, 6th District Alder
 
 
 
 

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