Columnist Jeff German: On noise expected over planned flight path

Sunday, Dec. 18, 2005 | 7:56 a.m.

Jeff German's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday in the Sun. Reach him at german@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4067.

When you talk to Las Vegas City Councilman Steve Wolfson, you have no doubt where he stands on the proposal to create a new airport flight path over the heavily populated communities of Summerlin and The Lakes.

He's against it -- along with what he says is the majority of the 90,000 or so residents in his Ward 2.

This has become the most emotional issue that Wolfson, a criminal defense lawyer, has faced since getting elected in June 2004.

Many of Wolfson's constituents gave the Federal Aviation Administration an earful last week about the prospects of having to deal with noise from jetliners flying over their homes.

One of those constituents, high-tech consultant Greg Toussaint, is so committed to fighting the FAA's proposal that he launched a Web site Friday morning to rally the opposition.

"When people bought homes in this area, they didn't know they would be in a flight path," Toussaint says. "Suddenly, they may no longer have the peaceful, quiet serenity that they thought they were getting."

Wolfson says he's going full-force into Wednesday's City Council meeting, where the FAA's plan will come under heavy fire. A large contingent of angry Ward 2 residents, many from Summerlin and The Lakes, is expected to pack the meeting.

Wolfson also has asked the city attorney's office to research the city's options, including the possibility of hiring an aviation consultant to assist in the fight and even suing the FAA if the agency moves forward with the new flight path.

It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that the City Council will pass a resolution Wednesday opposing the new route -- which the FAA contends is needed to relieve heavy air traffic at McCarran International Airport, now the nation's sixth largest terminal.

"Whether we can make a change, I'm not sure," Wolfson says. "But it's a fight worth fighting because so many people will be negatively affected."

The additional flight path, Wolfson says, would have an impact on 12 times the number of residents affected by the current route, which flies over the southwestern portion of the valley.

Officials have estimated that as many as 200 planes a day could be diverted to the new route.

An FAA noise expert told Wolfson that up to 75 planes, flying at an altitude of 3,000 to 6,000 feet, would be passing over The Lakes alone on any given day. The noise levels will reach as high as 85 decibels, which would be like standing next to a loud garbage disposal.

"That's a lot of airplanes every day making a lot of noise," Wolfson says.

Wolfson believes the FAA tried to manipulate last week's public comment process.

The agency, he says, deliberately held public meetings far away from the very people in his ward who would be most affected. He says he was told the FAA even hired a public relations firm to help lay out the proposal.

The FAA has denied trying to manipulate the process. But one thing it hasn't denied doing is miscalculating the extent of the public outcry over the plan -- at least in Ward 2.

Wolfson's plan is to see to it that the decibel level of discontent remains loud on Wednesday.