SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT NEWS
After you read the MOU details, you will want to read Airfair's response.
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Newport Beach Announces Completion of the Memorandum of Understanding or Step 1 in a long process toward an extension of the JWA Settlement Agreement
City Manager Dave Kiff's announcement this morning (03-21-13)with the details of the MOU is copied below followed by AirFair's response.
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From: Dave Kiff
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2013 11:09 AM
JWA Extension News
Good Morning,
Today, we are able to release information to you relating to a proposed extension of the 1985 Settlement Agreement relating to John Wayne Airport’s noise-based curfew, cap on passengers, and cap on the average daily departures (“ADDs”) of the loudest (called “Class A”) commercial flights. A negotiations process has been underway for nearly 18 months long to get to today. Yet today is the middle, not the end.
Our current agreement was to expire December 31, 2015.
The information is contained within a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that lays out the environmental review process that will follow the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The MOU itself identifies a proposed project to be analyzed under CEQA, along with some alternatives. The County of Orange will take the lead in the CEQA process.
The City Council will consider the MOU on Tuesday, March 25th, with the County Board of Supervisors expected to consider it on April 9th. In between, the two community partners’ boards (Stop Polluting our Newport [SPON], and the Airport Working Group [AWG]), will be asked to approve it.
The announcement today starts what can be a year-long public review and comment process, likely ending with an adopted Environmental Impact Report (EIR).
In the eyes of the City of Newport Beach, SPON, and AWG, the optimal project is this:
· An extension of the nighttime curfew at the same hours (no departures before 7:00 a.m. M-Sat, none before 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, and no arrivals after 11:00 p.m.) through 2035.
· Maintenance of the 10.8 MAP cap and the cap of 89 ADDs (that’s 85 commercial flights plus 4 cargo flights) through December 31, 2020.
· An ability for the MAP cap to grow by 1.0 MAP (to 11.8 MAP) after 2020 through the end of 2025, with 10 more Class A ADDs.
· An ability for the MAP cap to grow by another 0.4 MAP or 0.7 MAP in 2026 to 2030, but only if the airport meets a certain level of demand beforehand.
We are very excited about the ability to preserve our vital curfew through 2035 (no risk of night flights through 2035!) and to have “status quo” on MAP and ADDs through 2020. The MAP and ADD allowances after that preserve an actual cap but reflect tough discussions about how our “one of a kind” protections at JWA interact with Federal law (called the Airport Noise and Capacity Act or “ANCA”). ANCA’s passage in 1990 effectively made agreements like ours practically impossible in other regions, and also made existing agreements like ours very challenging to effectively extend.
Through this process, we are cognizant of ANCA and the fact that planes are flying with greater passenger loads to maximize efficiency (more passengers fly on the same amount of planes). And that the loudest planes today were considered some of the quietest ones just a decade ago (so they’re going in the right noise direction). That advances in technology will further lower aircraft noise as aircraft manufacturers seek more fuel efficient engines.
All of that acknowledged, they are still loud things flying over our heads and we’d rather have less of them.
This is not a done deal yet. But I am heartened that it has the support of our critical partners – AWG and SPON. Today Mayor Curry thanked both groups for working hard to get to this point.
From here, the CEQA process begins as noted above, with extensive opportunities for public input. We hope to have all of the CEQA work concluded and an executed document agreed-to within a year.
I want to personally thank members of SPON and AWG for their participation in these efforts, as well as Mayor Curry, Mayor pro Tem Hill, and Council Member Daigle for working at the table with us. Additionally, the County of Orange – including Supervisor John Moorlach – has participated as an active partner throughout the process to date to accomplish what we hope will be a successful outcome.
If you have questions about this, please do not hesitate to ask.
Thank you,
Dave Kiff
City Manager
City of Newport Beach, CA
949-644-3001
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AIRFAIR RESPONSE RE 2013 SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT
John Wayne Airport is a blessing and a curse all at the same time. With regard to the blessing, we congratulate the County on a well-run airport which many of us use on a regular basis. With regard to the curse, its flights, flight path, traffic and pollution affecting Newport Beach and all of the “corridor cities” have cost millions of dollars and degradation of neighborhoods since 1968 when the first jets arrived at JWA.
But thanks to many actively concerned residents and City Councils, we have what is described as the premier agreement as to protection of residents under a flight path – the 1985 JWA Settlement Agreement between the City of Newport Beach, SPON (Stop Polluting Our Newport), AWG (Airport Working Group), and the County. We are grateful to SPON, AWG, Newport Beach, and other cities for their steadfast work to keep the Settlement Agreement in place and give us some certainty about what to expect in the future. And, very importantly, keep the current curfew in place at least until 2035.
So with all of these congratulations on the table, what is AirFair’s response? After the 2003 Agreement extension which allowed a very large terminal expansion and increased the number of passengers per year to 10.8 million, it occurred to many of us that we are doing more than our “fair share” in acceptance of neighborhood noise and pollution from a regional airport. And so we adopted “10.8 and shut the gate” as our slogan to mean that 10.8 annual passengers is certainly our fair share – thus AirFair.
The current proposed extension of the Settlement Agreement keeps the 10.8 cap in place until 2020. After that new Agreement would allow an incremental increase in passengers until the year 2030. It remains the AirFair position that 10.8 million annual passengers is our “fair share.” We all need to continue to work together toward a future where JWA does not degrade the underlying neighborhoods, Ontario airport picks up its fair share, and the technological remedies for noise and pollution continue to increase. AirFair has been a valuable contributor to the Settlement negotiation process and will continue to work on regulating and mitigating the impact of John Wayne Airport on our citizens.
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As Dave Kiff's states in his announcement, the MOU agreed upon by the parties to the original 1985 Agreement is the middle, not the end. The MOU lays out the process and identifies the project that must be analyzed under CEQA. Public review and comment must follow.
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