Northern Hills Homeowner's Association

Abatement or Redistribution?

Abatement or Redistribution?

Is Moving Aircraft Noise to Northern Hills their way of Abating Noise in other Communities?

Councilman David Carpenter has answered public questioning (April 4, 2000 at Northwood Presbyterian Church, circa 6:00 PM) declaring he will support a plan to redirect the airport noise from the 78209 zip to the 78217 zip.
We need:
1. You to show your support by placing our myNHHA.org Mini-poster in your window, in your yard, on your car! (Hey we can use these like the Go Spurs Go stuff everyone had last year.)
2. People to attend and or speak at public meetings
3. Someone to sum up our answers to other claims at these public meetings ..
4. People to write City, State and US Government Officials
5. People to contact their neighbors to do the same.
6. Less Apathy! We are going to be the victim of a well orchestrated plan to accept environmental impacts , a monetary loss, and a degredation in our quality of life. This WILL HAPPEN soon.
Please read the story at left about the ''six-signature memo''. We could be seeing overflights by September.

Les Hobgood, Northern Hills resident and retired Noise Abatement professional presented a history of the FAA Part 150 studies in San Antonio at a meeting held in Northern Hills Elementary School on Tuesday, May 16th.

We have started a petition campaign. As the public hearings have been moved back to late June, we have extended the time to collect petition signatures to June 30. If you need more forms, write me and I will give you instructions on where to pick up more.

Six Years? What?

Six Years? What does that mean?
Many people have written all the San Antonio City Council members, and the most common reply they get is:
''You know, there will have to be an EPA Study, and FAA approval, and Randolph Tower will have to approve this, so you are looking at somewhere around six years before this could take place.

What does THIS statement mean?

There are several ways to interpret this answer...

1) You have about six years to unload your real estate.

2) You can HOPE (for the six years) that one of these things will make it fall through.

3) Your councilperson will not be here when the flights start affecting your quality of life, so why should they care? It'll be someone else's problem, not theirs.

4) Progress for San Antonio is important, Northern Hills is not.

When you hear someone tell you it will take at least six years, ask them which of the four meanings above they want you to use to interpret their statement. Guess what. All these answers are bad. The only smart thing would be to make sure that the 15 degree portion of the recommendation does not get in the final plan that is sent to the FAA.

On the subject of New Flight trajectories...

I also received an e-mail from a resident who noted that asking the planes to use a higher, faster trajectory on take-off will produce more pollution than the light rail rail sytem would have ''eliminated''. If this council want to stay within the EPA clean air guidelines, why are they asking jets to use 20% more fuel on take-off?
This adds to the pollution, and is detrimental to our overall air quality.

The fact is, the plan to redistribute the flight tracks over Northern Hills was conceived by the activist members of the TAC committee, and not one member of the San Antonio City Council questioned the effect of this plan on Northern Hills. This plan got the ''noise sensitive'' numbers down, and you know when it comes to getting elected, numbers count, not people. It doesn't matter that it will increase pollution. And please, don't pay any attention to the fact that Northern Hills has never had overflights since the day it opened almost 30 years ago.

NHHA letter:

As stated in the lead story in our latest newsletter “ If certain special interest groups get their way, heavy jet aircraft departures from the Airport will be directed over Northern Hills.” The current Airport proposal being supported by your City Councilman, David Carpenter, will redirect traffic out of one section of his district and route it through Northern Hills. The article in the Express-News on March 2nd would lead the reader to believe there will be no noise directed into our community.

Just try lining up a putt with a rock band playing on the next tee box.
You can join the effort to stop the City’s initiative by signing the petition that will be circulated door to door and/or personally contacting the offices of Mayor Peak, Councilman Carpenter and any other Councilman you know, by letter, e-mail or phone call. All City Officials’ e-mail addresses can be accessed at http://www.ci.sat.tx.us/council/index.htm and by using the HOTLINKS on the Left Side of this web page.

The plan must still be presented before a public hearing and then a formal vote by the City Council. The Federal Aviation Administration then can take up to 180 days to approve the plan. After that, an environmental impact study must be undertaken. There are many places to combat this plan, but...
the best way to make sure it will not happen, is to make sure IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED!.
How to Use this site:
OUR INFO:
The Newsletter is a collection of postings that I have received and wanted to share with everyone. If you want to share an experience, the results of a phone call, or whatever, send me an email, and let me know you want it posted. My email address is automatically entered for you when you click on the ''contact us'' link.
INTERACTIVE AREAS:
We are not currently using any of the items in the Interactive Areas.
OUR PAGES:
In the Our Pages Section, we have extensive information. Knowledge is power, and if you know what this study is, who asked for it, and what it was intended for, you will be able to logically state why the proposal is unfair. When someone tells you ''It will take years.'', you can show them your councilman's own words from the transcript. Plan for a night of reading, there is lots of information.
Read the presentation made to City Council, Look at the topics in the What was shown to the Council. If you need help writing a letter, we have provided sample letters in this section as well.
OUR LINKS:
The section at left includes links to the City of SA and other interesting reading.