City Council Adopts Plan to Mitigate Impact of Noise Around Lindbergh Field

Seeking to limit development around Lindbergh Field while also providing residents relief from aircraft noise, the San Diego City Council Tuesday approved a land-use plan limiting construction near the airport.

By a unanimous vote, the council adopted a land-use plan aimed at preventing development within the 9,600 acres surrounding Lindbergh Field from encroaching on the airport, thereby limiting its potential for expansion or exacerbating existing noise and safety concerns.

Among other provisions, the plan also calls for all schools within the noisiest areas near the airport to be soundproofed by 1995, and gives homeowners the option of taking similar noise mitigation steps at their residences, with federal funds covering most or all of those expenses.

People who undertake expensive home remodeling projects, meanwhile, would be required to soundproof the renovated areas or room additions at their own expense, up to a cap of 10% of the total construction cost.

To take effect, the council’s plan also must be adopted this summer by the San Diego Assn. of Governments, which operates as the region’s airport land-use commission.

In addition, the San Diego Unified Port Commission also could play a role in the plan’s enactment, because the port is the agency that must apply to the federal government for funds needed to finance some of its major provisions--notably, the soundproofing program.

Councilman Ron Roberts, whose district includes the airport, characterized the plan as an attempt to address both current noise and safety complaints, and concerns that future development could worsen those problems.

“For too long, the port has looked at the airport as an entity divorced from the community around it,” Roberts said. “This plan will look at the airport in the context of how what happens there affects the surrounding community and the entire city.”

One of the major purposes behind the plan is to ensure that new development does not restrict the airport’s existing operations or preclude expansions.

Toward that end, the plan--mandated by a state law requiring land-use guidelines for all California airports--proposes that the port acquire development rights for all vacant properties within the loudest “noise contours” surrounding the airport’s landing and takeoff paths.

The port’s purchase of those vacant parcels would guarantee that they would not be used for “incompatible development,” according to a city planning report.

However, when city planners conceded that they did not know how much that recommendation could cost the port, Councilwoman Judy McCarty questioned the fairness of asking another governmental agency to, in essence, provide a blank check for that purpose.

“I’m having trouble with us taking care of people who don’t exist now,” McCarty said, noting that residential developments might never even be proposed for the vacant parcels.

“We don’t want additional residences going in there,” Roberts responded. However, if landowners are not permitted to develop their property, the government, in fairness, must buy it from them, he added.

The San Diego Board of Port Commissioners--whose staffers have expressed reservations about the plan both because of its potential cost and impact on lawsuits filed by airport-area residents over aircraft noise--are expected to review the program next week.

Residents of neighborhoods surrounding the airport have long complained that the Port District has not aggressively pursued federal funds available for soundproofing programs in the so-called “airport influence area.” Nearly 87,000 people live within those areas, according to city figures.

City officials and airport-area residents said they hope that Tuesday’s plan prompts the port to apply for such funds under a Federal Aviation Administration program that provides local agencies with 80% of the overall costs of soundproofing projects.

If those funds were available, residents could choose to soundproof their homes through methods such as double-pane windows or wall-insulation devices designed to minimize vibrations, at little or no cost to themselves.

People who remodel their homes, however, could be required to finance their own soundproofing programs if the cost of the remodeling exceeds $50,000. The soundproofing requirement would apply, however, only to the remodeled area, rather than the entire residence. In addition, homeowners would not be required to spend more than 10% of their total remodeling cost on acoustical insulation.

Remodeling jobs costing less than $50,000 would not be affected by the program.