Local Residents Fear Noise Increase

The FAA has approved the groundwork for California's Livermore Municipal Airport (LVK) to develop a "jetport" that is able to accommodate larger commercial jets.

The FAA's approval of "minimum standards for commercial aeronautical activity" allows the city to set financial performance levels for businesses at the airport and opens the way for the city to solicit bids from potential business tenants that would take responsibility for fuel sales, of which the city is the lone vendor, according to Pleasanton California's Tri-Valley Herald.

The move is not without its critics, however. Among them is an airport watchdog group, Livermore Airport Citizens Group. LACG describes itself as "a group of citizens dedicated to the preservation/improvement of our health, safety, property values and quality of life as affected by the Livermore Municipal Airport, Livermore, CA, and the aviation activity associated with the airport."

The airport plan means, to opponents, a future with more and bigger jets, as well as the noise and particulate pollution.

"They're turning it into a 'jetport' with luxury hangars and squeezing out the recreational pilots," said Livermore resident Wendy Weathers, one of many convinced the "minimum standards" approval will clear the way for expansion, with no effective way devised to monitor or combat a noise problem.

Livermore airport manager Leander Hauri said neither the recent FAA action nor airport improvement plans "will appreciably increase the number of flights."

Plans for improvements include 38 large T-hangars at 1,500 square feet each, and construction of 27 small box hangars at 2,500 square feet each has already begun.

"We have the infrastructure in place (to build); we have what we have," said Hauri, adding that the "minimum standards" apply to the financial capacity of a prospective airport service vendor.

City officials began gathering proposals from prospective operators of the new hangars and fueling facilities at the airport in January. Operators' proposals are due March 19.

It likely will be at least a few months before the council names an operator, City Councilman Tom Reitter said.

Reitter said he doesn't believe new hangars and new service providers will cause huge airport changes. It's the FAA, he said, that wields most of that power, not the city.

Mayor Marshall Kamena said the new hangars are designed to provide shelter for existing airport tenants, not to squeeze them out.

"That doesn't seem like a net gain in aircraft to me," he said.

Karen McMullen, a resident who lives near the airport isn't so sure. She acknowledged the LACG is beginning fund-raisers for newspaper fliers to generate support for opposing any airport "expansion."

"The citizens are saying, 'Not again. ... How many times do we have to go through this?'" she said.

Reitter realizes there is a difference in the way the city views this issue and the way some residents do.

"I doubt there will ever be agreement between the two sides on what's happening," he said.

FMI: www.ci.livermore.ca.us/airport/