Supervisors to Act on Airport Noise

For nearly 20 years, Mavis and Gene Austin stopped talking on the telephone when aircraft from nearby Los Angeles International Airport flew overhead. The noise made conversation impossible.

For nearly three decades, June and Ervin Rose suffered through drowned-out television programs and interrupted conversations because of jet noise from the airport.

But last year the Austins, the Roses and 18 other families got relief when the airport paid to insulate their homes from noise.

Hope for More Funds

On Wednesday the Orange County Board of Supervisors will be asked to approve a similar program of sound insulation for homeowners near John Wayne Airport. The supervisors also will be asked to approve a plan to buy the homes of some residents near the airport.

County officials concede that the $2 million in “seed money” for the two programs won’t buy a lot of homes or pay for soundproofing estimated at $8,000 to $12,000 per residence. But they say they hope for more federal grants and money from bond sales if the program proves popular.

“One of the things we don’t know is what the level of participation will be in this program,” said Richard Adler of the county Environmental Management Agency.

“Until we send out the applications, after the board approves, we just don’t know how many people will apply,” Adler said.

The supervisors approved the general outline of the “purchase assurance” plan and the acoustical insulation a year ago, but implementation was held up because of lawsuits challenging the expansion of John Wayne Airport.

Under a compromise that resulted in dismissal of the lawsuits last December, the airport will expand with a new terminal to serve an expected 8.4 million passengers a year, up from 4.75 million now.

The soundproofing and purchase assurance plans are designed to comply with state law limiting the amount of noise an airport can inflict on homes, but officials admit that expansion of the airport will mean more jets and thus more noise.

More than 200 people showed up at a Costa Mesa meeting Jan. 21 to hear county officials outline the proposed plans, which are voluntary.

Homeowners will be allowed to offer their homes to the county or to apply for the insulation program, but not both. Priority in buying homes will go to people with medical or financial hardship, and fair market-value prices will be determined by appraisals, county officials said.

The plans call for replacing 189 homes south of the airport’s runways with office buildings.

The program envisions private sales to developers of as many more homes in the affected area as possible. Homes that cannot be sold privately will be bought by the county and resold to new residents or to businesses.

Adler estimated that 450 homes will be eligible for acoustical insulation. Because of limited funds, the program will be carried out in phases, with 40 to 60 expected to be soundproofed within a year after the program starts.

Residents whose homes are insulated must agree to give up the right to sue over jet noise. That requirement is a wild card that leaves county officials uncertain how many people will apply for insulation.

Basically, insulating a home involves installing windows, changing the ventilation system and in some cases inserting solid cores in hollow doors.

The advice from homeowners around Los Angeles International Airport is to choose the insulation program.

“It made a big difference in our lives, it really did,” Mavis Austin said. “It used to be if I was talking on the phone, I’d have to say, ‘Would you hang on a minute, there’s a plane going by.’ We don’t have that any more.”

Some Drawbacks

Austin’s husband, Gene, said insulation of the family’s wood-frame stucco house in El Segundo “made a dramatic difference,” although there are drawbacks.

“For example, this insulation is effective only if the house is closed,” Gene Austin said. “Now, if you lead an outdoor life, the insulation doesn’t do anything for living on the patio. Or if you want fresh-air ventilation, opening these beautiful windows is going to let in the fresh air and it’s also going to let in the noise.”

The Austins live south of the airport, the Roses live to the north, in Playa del Rey. June Rose said the program “has done a real good job” of protecting her house from the noise.

“I don’t think we ever heard the planes when we first moved in,” Rose said. “We were far enough away from that south runway that we never heard them. But when they put in the north ones (runways), you couldn’t hear yourselves think.”

Despite the noise, the Roses didn’t consider moving.

“We love the ocean, both of us,” she said, and when nearby houses were purchased and razed by the airport years ago to build a buffer zone, the Roses were left with “an unlimited view of the ocean south of us.”

“We never thought of moving, even when the noise was bad,” Rose said. “They’ll carry us out feet first.”

Wyle Laboratories of El Segundo, which soundproofed the 20 homes near Los Angeles International Airport, reported that the work generally took four weeks to complete and in the noisiest homes required installation of a secondary wall inside some rooms to lessen noise.

“All of the residents, without exception, considered the installation of sound insulation to be a ‘good idea’ and would recommend it to other homeowners in their immediate neighborhood,” the report said.

Dave Brown, Wyle’s project manager for the Los Angeles job, said the company has done similar work in neighborhoods around Seattle and in New York City schools.

“There has been, let’s say, an acceleration of interest in recent years,” Brown said, because of the availability of federal money and because of laws requiring reduced noise impact on homes near airports.

The 20-home project last year proved so successful that two weeks ago Los Angeles airport officials authorized Wyle to begin plans to soundproof apartment buildings near the airport.