Noise, Needs Must Balance

How to better balance the peace and quiet of residents with the commercial needs of aviation companies? That’s the question state transportation officials will ponder as they launch the first series of hearings in nearly a decade on operations at Van Nuys Airport. The long overdue process will determine whether Van Nuys--the busiest general aviation airport in the world--gets to keep the variance that allows it to operate above prescribed noise levels.

Most likely, it will. But the hearing process quantifies the airport’s positive and negative effects on the communities that surround it. Everyone with an interest can measure for themselves how the two stack up. For instance, is a little extra noise worth the millions of dollars the airport generates? That decision ultimately lies with the Department of Transportation, which plans to begin hearings on the variance before year’s end.

Few would dispute that Van Nuys Airport benefits the San Fernando Valley with its jobs and tax base. Yet those benefits come with a price: noise. Airport critics contend that the benefits are not worth the price they pay in lost sleep and interrupted conversations as jets and helicopters roar overhead. Most of those critics know that they have little hope of shutting down the airport through the variance hearings, but they do hope to force concessions from aviation operators. The biggest: quieter jets.

Much of the most irksome noise out of Van Nuys is generated by so-called Stage 2 jets, which are older and louder than Stage 3 aircraft like the ones flying out of Burbank Airport. Stage 2 aircraft include many of the small, private jets that use Van Nuys. Aviation operators argue that the older aircraft are critical to profitability and should not be banned in favor of the more expensive Stage 3 jets.

True. But if the variance hearings reveal excessive noise in surrounding neighborhoods then operators ought to consider amortizing their existing planes under a fair plan that introduces newer planes over time. As it stands, the number of noisier jets based at Van Nuys has grown faster than the number of quieter jets. That has to change. Armed with an accurate picture of the airfield’s impacts, aviation operators, neighbors and transportation officials should be able to hammer out an arrangement that balances the business needs of Van Nuys Airport and the community that surrounds it.