Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

County starts work to cut airport noise

The Clark County Aviation Department on Tuesday launched the year-long process designed to keep window-rattling at a minimum for homes near the fast-growing McCarran International Airport.

A "public working group" studying the issues met Tuesday for the first time. The group includes Clark County planners and representatives from area town boards, and various airlines. Another nine meetings are scheduled before the group is expected to take its recommendations to the Clark County Commission in June 2006.

The process is to identify which neighborhoods are the most affected by airport and aircraft noise and to come up with recommendations as to what to do about the problems.

It's s the first step in the Federal Aviation Administration's noise compatibility study to determine what parts of the valley will be most hit by anticipated growth at the busy airport. Once finished, the public working group's determination will be used to shape the official "Part 150" study, named for the section of the federal regulation under which the voluntary review falls. If the final plan is approved by the FAA, the county will be eligible for federal money to buy and possibly demolish property in the noisiest areas, Randy Walker, the county's aviation director, said. The county can opt out of the study, but is then ineligible for federal money to pay for up to three-fourths of the necessary costs, he said.

The county already has what Walker called a strict disclosure program for owners whose homes are in flight paths, at which point the onus is on the prospective buyer to choose whether they want to live there, he said.

"By knowing that we don't feel nearly as bad for them as if they weren't aware of it," Walker said. "We want people to know what the circumstances are and they know very well that planes are flying over."

Airport officials in 1998 drastically altered the take-off path used by commercial jets, meaning most planes fly west when they leave, as opposed to the previous path that went east over more populated areas in Henderson.

Walker wouldn't publicly speculate which parts of town he expected to be most problematic for the airport.

McCarran has grown to become the fifth or sixth busiest airport in North America, with an average 110,000 passengers going through its terminals each day, officials estimate.

Jeff Jacquart, the airport program administrator at McCarran, said the study will help engineers develop a "noise footprint" that accurately depicts which areas are prone to window-rattling and jet fumes that come from living near an airport.

The city of Henderson signed an agreement with McCarran in December 1988 to protect residents from excessive noise and the aviation department has in the past bought homes in neighborhoods near Eastern and Sunset avenues to retrofit or change from residential to commercial purposes.

"We want to make sure the airport and the community can co-exist," Walker told the group.

But it didn't stop residents throughout the county from lodging 3,620 noise-related complaints last year, up from 2,745 in 2003, according to statistics provided to the Sun. Of those, more than two-thirds came from a single Boulder City resident, airport officials said.

The issue has come to a head at recent county zoning board meetings, as planning officials have questioned how the planes might affect the numerous high-rise condominium towers sprouting up throughout the valley, Walker said.

To compensate, the county has required developers to install more sound-proof glass and reposition areas meant for "quiet reflection" to shield owners of the pricey condos from the unpleasant byproducts, he said.

"We've come to some grips with them, and we feel a lot more comfortable with that," Walker said.

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