Amendments to the airport noise cone map and regulations – which the City Council continued at the Tuesday, Feb. 16 meeting – have become controversial, but it is difficult to understand why.
The Zoning Commission unanimously approved the map and text amendments proposed by the city Planning Department, but it was not clear at the zoning meeting of Jan. 20 exactly what the commission was approving.
The issue pits the Greensboro Planning Department against the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority, and the whole matter is critical enough that the Airport Authority hired an outside attorney.
Before the Zoning Commission, Tom Terrell of Fox Rothschild represented the Airport Authority, along with the Airport Authority’s attorney Bill Cooke.
The essence of the issue is that the Airport Authority is asking that the same regulations on notification and construction in Airport Overlay District 2, which is further away from the airport, apply in Airport Overlay District 1 closer to the airport.
District 2 requires that potential buyers be made aware of the increased noise levels caused by the airport and that construction be built to mitigate the noise. In District 2, multi-family residential zoning is allowed.
In District 1, closer to the airport, residential zoning is limited to single-family on lots of at least 40,000 square feet. But under the city’s proposed amendments, buyers would not have to be notified of the noise issues and houses would not have to be constructed to mitigate the noise.
Cooke explained to the Zoning Commission that the concern of the Airport Authority was that real estate is most often shown to potential buyers during the day, whereas the noise issues from the airport – in part because of the FedEx flights – is more pronounced at night, and the FedEx flights are expected to increase substantially. For that reason the Airport Authority was requesting that the same notification and construction regulations for Overly District 2 also apply in Overlay District 1.
However, at the Zoning Commission meeting the requested changes were not made, so the item on the City Council agenda was the original request from the Planning Department that would allow property to be sold in Overlay District 1 without the required notification of the airport noise and without construction mitigation.
The City Council plans to hold a work session in order to hear why the Planning Department doesn’t want the notification and construction regulations in Overylay District 1, as well as why the Airport Authority does.
Noise cone is a joke- look at the FAA study and graphs- surprising how the cone is not extended equally on the the north side of the airport. Airport should purchase sound proofing for ALL homes within a 5 mile radius.
Maybe people who don’t like noise should not purchase homes near the airport.
This is not hard to understand on the part of the Airport. They don’t want people buying homes to later come back as a group and demand less noise thereby requiring jets to launch from their runways as if from carrier decks followed by steep turns causing potential passengers to become unhappy fliers.
If the homes are built insulated from the noise of jets and sold to people who love the challenge of guessing the plane by the sound of the jet engine flying over at all hours of the night then everyone is happy. There’s no reason this can’t be written into the city codes by the Planning Department and that realtors can’t be required to disclose this information to new buyers. There are people who like living near airports, who like the noise of jets flying over, who will run to the windows or into the yard to look at them EVERY time they are following the flight path and wave at the pilots and passengers, and who on really rough days say a prayer for a calm landing.
I can’t understand the Planning Department’s reluctance to agree with the airport on these regulations as they seem to really like making regulations. These make sense so maybe that’s the issue.
Someone with influence over the Planning Dept, property owners, builders or the city itself, wants to avoid any additional impediments to development in the District 1 area
This reminds me of Clint Bullock, Institute for Justice’s book ‘Leviathan’ about state and local government growth and abuse. We the People have been deprived of any peaceful power over these characters. Think about this and the Randleman dam’s Piedmont Triad Water Authority.
The noise cone is ridiculously small and virtually useless for its intended purpose. Problematic noise from airport operations extends much further into Greensboro’s residential areas.
On the other hand, it’s not the airport’s problem if I bought a house beneath the final approach path to their main runway. I was making the biggest purchase of my life and it’s my responsibility to do my due diligence.
I agree with you. The Planning Department caters and craters to the developers. Notifications reduce prices and profits for developers…
Someone on the city council is thanking Payday on its way
I simply think that houses built near Airports should be constructed with noise mitigation in mind. If superior products are called for use them and justify it in your price. But please do the right thing initially . As Ms Gregson States there are plenty of folks who love living near the Airport and everything that goes with it. But over and over We the People see things end up getting messy and cost that could have been efficiently and honestly avoided. ✅. The lack of integrity Is pervasively obviously in all areas of our lives these days.
“The lack of integrity Is pervasively obviously in all areas of our lives these days.” And therein lies the real problem with this entire situation. If the realtors were honest, if the Planning Board would write reasonable regulations, if the developers would honestly build with buyers in mind, if the County Commissioners (or any other politicians) weren’t affected financially by their “other job” or the job of someone in their family, then none of these issues would be a problem.
The airport was once way out in the country in all cities but development driven by tax revenue causes businesses and homes to fill-in eventually. When that happens it’s the responsibility of both the buyer and those involved in development and sales to have the “integrity” to be honest about the possible issues, both positive and negative, involved in a home or business purchase. (This should be extrapolated for many situations, honestly.)
Many purchased a home near the airport before runway 23R/ 5L was ever constructed. This is the area where the noise cone is smallest. The airport should either sound proof the homes or purchase them. Look at Indianapolis airport, Fedex moved in along with the postal aircraft many years ago effecting the homes within a few miles of the airport. Homes were lowered in value, received cracked walls from aircraft when ceiling was low due to the jet engine sound bouncing off the low cloud ceilings.