Aug 15 2006 staff report 6D - Laserfiche WebLink

master plan previously adopted by Livermore. The July 25, 2006, memorandum to the City Council (attached) highlighted the proposed changes between the two plans. During the hearings for the 2004 draft master plan, residents of both cities reiterated noise-related concerns regarding both the ongoing operations of the airport and the planned extension. The concerns expressed were related to potential increases in flights in and out of the airport, and increases in the number of jets. In response to the concerns, City of Livermore staff recommended to their City Council that noise monitors be installed around the airport in order to be able to verify noise events as they occurred. The Livermore City Council considered the item and approved the concept of installing noise monitors, but modified the staff recommendation of paying for the noise monitors from the airport enterprise account, to paying for them from a cost- sharing between the City of Livermore General Fund, Enterprise account, and asking the City of Pleasanton to contribute to the cost of the installation. The most recent request from the City of Livermore asked the City of Pleasanton to participate in the noise monitoring system cost with a two-fifths share, or approximately $93,550. City staff from both Pleasanton and Livermore recently met and discussed the noise monitoring project in more detail to allow us to better understand how the noise monitoring would be used. Discussion The project calls for the installation of five noise monitors. The noise monitors would be located in the primary flight paths of airplanes, with two located in Pleasanton, and three in Livermore. The noise monitors would not cover every possibility of an approach, but would capture the majority of the flights. The FAA prevents the City of Livermore from closing their airport to planes at night, and there is no enforcement for noisy planes. Currently, the City of Livermore seeks voluntary compliance from pilots to not use the airport at night and avoid "buzzing" the local residents. Livermore airport staff will notify pilots if they create excessive noise, or land at night. The noise monitors will capture data to verify when noise events occur, but this information will not result in changes to the operations of the airport. There is benefit in the installation of the system by providing data to Livermore staff to better respond to residents when they are concerned with noise events. The data can also be used to help obtain voluntary compliance with the noise levels in the area. Because of this benefit, staff is recommending we work with the City of Livermore to install the noise monitors in Pleasanton. However, because the cause of the noise is the Livermore Airport, staff believes that the Livermore Airport Enterprise fund should pay the full cost of the installation of the noise monitors. SR 06:206 Page 2 of 3