Northern Hills Homeowner's Association

An Open Letter To Councilman Schubert

Sep 14, 2001

Councilman Schubert:

I have been forwarded replies to emails from two other Northern Hills residents. These were responses to emails made by your staff today, and I must tell you, Councilman Schubert, that the "stock" replies your staff are giving are in error.

Your reply is indicated with the > in front:

> I would like you to know that I will not
> support moving any measurable noise from
> one neighborhood to another.
> The proposed 15?° turn to the east on Runway 3
> takeoffs to the north is designed only to
> reduce airplane noise over residential areas
> and not to increase the noise over any
> neighborhood.

We have stated before that we don't really care for words like "measurable noise", especially when there is no noise monitoring system in place.
Northern Hills has never before been in the flight path, and we intend to never be in the flight path. The reason we purchased our homes here instead of Eden, StoneRidge, Oak Village, or Northwood was because it was flyover free.

> This turn will direct the take-off noise over
> the Capitol Cement plant, and the proposed
> noise contours extend approximately only to
> the Northern Hills golf course.

The "new" contours reduce the noise picture even further, which should make us happy, but I have been as far out as Knoll Creek subdivision and
experienced very loud single event noise. The sound of one plane over Northern Hills would be one plane too many.

> Additionally, I have requested that the airport
> consider establishing a new departure profile,
> based upon appropriate testing, which could
> diminish the noise over residential areas.
> Once again, the airport plans prepared by
> the City's consultant must be approved by
> the FAA before the control tower can instruct
> the pilots to change the direction of any flight.

Ricondo is doing SIX DAYS of testing, which will represent the average for the entire year. Do I need to bring up the image of people who drowned in a lake where the "average" depth was only 2 feet? Decibel measurements are exponential, and averaging decibels is fruitless. Contour maps lie about noise.

Councilman Schubert. I do not believe you have seen the most recent noise maps created by Ricondo and associates. In two weeks there will be a presentation made to council that will state how the requirements and procedures of the FAR 150 study were carried out. I have reason to
believe that Northern Hills could very easily argue that the REGULATIONS that are specified by the FAR (That's what the R in FAR stands for) were
not followed, and that the entire procedure should be dismissed and started over.

There was no vote by the TAC on the recommendations. Yet, Mr. Williams and his crew have taken the liberty of doing the voting for the committee members. I believe that if you question Mr. Jewell and Mr. Gallagher, who
were recently appointed to the TAC, they will tell you that they were not given an opportunity to vote on the recommendations. So, how can the city accept a proposal that was the "decision of the TAC committee" when no votes were cast?

There were new maps created by Ricondo and Associates that were published and delivered to all the Libraries. I have reason to believe that not even members of City Council were told about these new maps. Mr. Rankin did not inform anyone about these new maps. No personnel from Ricondo
informed us. In fact, I would wager that even you have not seen the new maps, or read the new "50/50" plan as outlined in the revised proposal.

I believe our community deserves more than stale, stock answers. You must make an effort to insure that this horrific plan does not pass on your
watch.

Be ready for a large voice of protest when the public hearing is held on the on 26th of September at Holy Spirit Catholic Church. We plan to hold a homeowner's meeting on the 18th of September to inform our neighbors of the items I have discussed above.

John Penry
jpenry@satx.rr.com

(EDITOR'S NOTE) I received the same "stock reply" in my "snail mail" today witht the same outdated replies from Councilman Schubert. I hope he gets informed before September 26th.