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Home My WebLink AboutSS2 - Information/Update About John Wayne AirportQ SEW Pp�T CITY OF �m z NEWPORT BEACH c�<,FORN'P City Council Staff Report February 13, 2018 Agenda Item No. SS2 TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL FROM: Dave Kiff, City Manager - 949-644-3001, dkiff@newportbeachca.gov PREPARED BY: Dave Kiff, City Manager TITLE: Information/Update About John Wayne Airport ABSTRACT: The City Council met in open session on Monday, January 29, 2018 to discuss some key strategies for 2018. One of the items involved John Wayne Airport (JWA), but because of time, we were unable to get to the item. This study session agenda item will summarize recent City and other actions related to JWA. RECOMMENDATION: Receive, file, and comment. FUNDING REQUIREMENTS: The City is likely to allocate and spend about $700,000 to $800,000 in the coming year to address JWA concerns. Some of it is likely to involve a future budget amendment. DISCUSSION: At this Study Session presentation, the City Manager will summarize some or all of the material on the attached letter that was posted on the City's website in January 2018. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW: Staff recommends the City Council find this action is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Sections 15060(c)(2) (the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment) and 15060(c)(3) (the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378) of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly. NOTICING: The agenda item has been noticed according to the Brown Act (72 hours in advance of the meeting at which the City Council considers the item). ATTACHMENT: Attachment A — Letter Regarding JWA SS2-1 Information/Update About John Wayne Airport February 13, 2018 Page 2 ATTACHMENT A January 23, 2018 Dear Residents of Newport Beach: I wanted to give you a more formal update on Airport Issues following the recent announcement of a tentative agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) over several issues upon which the City litigated. Additionally, Council Member Jeff Herdman asked me to summarize some of the City's other recent activity involving John Wayne Airport (JWA). Bear with me, as usual — I will try to be somewhat concise but this is a very complex subject as you know. And I tend to be too wordy. Before going further, remember that Newport Beach is merely adjacent to JWA. We don't own it, it's not in our city limits, and we don't operate it. The County of Orange operates the airport while planes are on the ground, and the FAA takes over when planes take off. About four years ago, the FAA announced a nationwide effort called "NextGen" that was to narrow arrival and departure corridors down more specific, satellite -based routes. In October 2016, the City sued the FAA over the environmental document associated with NextGen's implementation at JWA (aka the Southern California Metroplex). Knowing that, please read on. Departure PATHS. To me, a departure path is the geographic route that planes fly— ie. where planes fly, versus how they fly over us. As you will read next, our FAA litigation primarily involved where planes fly. Just as a reminder, currently (in January 2018), ALL commercial departures from JWA are flying a defined and specific "one -turn" route down the Upper Bay then over Back Bay View Park. Back in March 2017, we observed that the new route appeared to take some planes too far to the east — as a result, the FAA has made multiple but subtle adjustments to this route. Following the FAA's last adjustment to these departure paths in early December 2017, the final few destination routes (the ones headed to Las Vegas or Salt Lake City) were shifted slightly to the west. If you want to dive deeper into each of these adjustments, please look here. What was the FAA Litigation About? Our lawsuit was about the adequacy of the FAA's environmental document that analyzed the impacts of the FAA's NextGen program over Newport Beach (and many other airport areas). The key reason we sued was because the FAA's document appeared to show that the FAA could design routes that strayed far outside the traditional departure patterns of the Upper Bay. Included in the document was a diagram (Diagram A) that showed a range of possible departure paths all over town. The City's settlement agreement with the FAA will affect Departure Paths as follows: • Emphasize the importance of following as closely as possible the traditional historic flight paths in the Upper Bay. • Insure that the Metroplex will not preempt or jeopardize the continued successful operation of the JWA Settlement Agreement and its many protections. • Prohibit the use of the environmental document to modify existing or to design future flight paths. This helps ensure that the traditional departure paths of the Upper Newport Bay are preserved. SS2-2 Information/Update About John Wayne Airport February 13, 2018 Page 3 • Implement and test a new "Required Navigational Performance (RNP)" departure procedure for the Upper Bay consisting of two turns, not just one. It's called the STAYY (see Diagram B) and would attempt to remain within the natural contours of the Upper Bay and curve as the bay curves, avoiding as many residential areas as possible. Diagram A Possible Locations of Departure Route Cleared in the EA Orange County �t Early East Turn rt• A, r _ _.- . _ _ Cinvi NationE SS2-3 Information/Update About John Wayne Airport February 13, 2018 Page 4 Residents have asked me, "did the litigation solve our concerns?" No, not entirely. There is more work to be done. The litigation was essential and very important in the long-term protection of our community from future actions regarding departure paths, but even with its settlement, we think we need to improve departure procedures so that air carriers are using the best procedures for noise and pollution reduction in our community. Departure PROCEDURES. This is how the planes fly on a geographic route or path. Recall that TWO different noise -abatement departure procedures (NADPs) are approved nationwide. Both were designed with carriers and the FAA and airports (including JWA) back in 1991. However, these provide general guidance to the carriers. Ultimately, airlines develop their own procedures according to their operations specifications for each individual aircraft. This is especially true at SNA since airlines have to adhere to the single event noise restrictions. One of the procedures (NADP -1) is also called the "Close -In" departure, and feels like you're going up higher, faster, then leveling off 'til the coastline. This was very commonly used at JWA. The other — NADP -2 — is called the "Distant" departure, and has a gentler climb — it is far more commonly used at other airports. In 2008, when this was last studied, our consultant found that ALL of the carriers going out of JWA were using some variation of NADP -1 (see page III -8). But a more recent analysis by the County of Orange reported that some major carriers — like United and American — had transitioned to NADP -2 while still meeting the required noise standards out of JWA. It is the carriers' choice to determine which NADP they use. While we think NADP -1 is better for the community, we need data and analysis to prove it. The Council authorized more work in this regard in Fall 2017, and we're gearing up to get it going. It likely will take a few months to complete. Deliverable here: A way to approach the carriers with good science and data about what the quietest departure procedure is — could be NADP -1 or something totally new. Temporary Noise Monitoring. Recall that folks in the community wanted us to "monitor the monitors" by setting up new temporary stations nearby Noise Monitoring Stations #S (near the Back Bay sort of close to Eastbluff Elementary) and #6 (Santiago Drive on the Bay's west side). We completed Round 1 in mid-December — those results are not yet with me. We were going to also test an area on Balboa Island as well as in Dover Shores that same week, but the Santa Ana Winds wreaked havoc with that. So Round #2 occurred only very recently here in January. I did not tell many about the specific dates, as I did not want to tip the air carriers or the airport off about when this would occur. I noted at one of our "Friday Forums" that I would release this data to the public when it's presented in report form. Deliverable here: new noise data. Long -Term Noise Monitoring. The City is likely to consider adding a permanent noise monitoring station on or near Balboa Island. This would add to our knowledge of power -ups past Noise Monitoring Station #7, and could possibly help us work with air carriers to get carriers to fly more quietly once they pass the last regulatory noise monitor (that's at Newport Dunes). For a map of the existing regulatory stations, click here. This item may be included in the Capital Improvement Program for Fiscal Year 2018-19, which the Council will start to consider very soon. Deliverable here: maybe a new NMS on or near Balboa Island. SS2-4 Information/Update About John Wayne Airport February 13, 2018 Page 5 Communicating with the Air Carriers. Many residents have been great about expressing personal and thoughtful concerns to the major air carriers about noise. The major carriers out of JWA (in order of most flights/day, generally) are Southwest, American, United, Alaska, Delta, and Frontier. Residents asked the carriers to please: • Consider using NADP -1 if you're using NADP -2, if doing so results in less noise. • Consider using some of the newest, less polluting, and quietest planes in your fleets that are assigned to JWA routes (the Boeing 737 -MAX and the Airbus 320neo) • Do not apply additional power after Newport Dunes (NMS #7) until the plane is over the ocean. • Consider training your pilots so that they can fly the STAYY procedure once it is made available (likely to be Feb 2018). We will bring on a local firm that might assist the City and our residents in these communications with air carriers. In December 2017, we issued a request for proposals, and about eight firms responded. We expect a selection decision before the end of January. Deliverable here: hiring a communication and strategy firm to help. More about the Boeing 737 -MAX. Frontier Airlines already flies at least one Airbus 320neo out of JWA daily, and it has a lower noise footprint than some other planes. We've been waiting to see how Boeing's new plane does as well. We're starting to find out. Southwest has used its new Boeing 737 - MAX at JWA, although it's not regularly placed here. A SW flight to Phoenix on Christmas Eve was flown with a MAX, and the noise results, when compared to a similarly -weighted Boeing 737-800, was pretty impressive. As you look at the below chart, know that the human ear can generally detect a noise difference of >3 dB. Federal Advocacy. We brought on an advocate in Washington DC to both work with national air carrier groups and specific carriers, as well as with the FAA to help us in our efforts to have planes depart in a quieter manner. Deliverable here: hopefully good relationships with air carriers and others to help us solve problems locally. Friday Forums. We continue to host our Friday Forums to help us all learn more about airport operations and issues, and to collaborate as a community on strategies to protect against noise and other impacts. Anyone is welcome. We meet from 3:00 p.m. to about 4:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at the Civic Center. Several forums are coming up, three of which involve presentations by the County of Orange (as operator of the Airport) covering issues like Allocations of "Slots" (i.e. what carrier gets to fly out of JWA using what planes), how noise is monitored and reported, and the 1985 SS2-5 The Boeing 737 -IMAX at JWA (preliminary data) Type of Plane Flight date Route sestina- tion Persons/ Seats Takeoff Weight decibels followed by Altitude @ NMS 3 NMS 4 NMS 5 NMS 6 NMS 7 SW Boeing 737-800 11/19/2016 MUSEL PHX 175/175 138,858 96.8 86.3 84.2 85.9 81.9 Attitudes= 1,242 1,534 1.660 1.990 2.792 SW Boeing 737 -MA?{ 112124120171 PIGGN2 I PHK 1 136/175 1 138.672 85.8 N/A 76.9 76.9 N/A Altitudes = 1.247 1,514 1,632 1,853 2.710 Difference m d8 (this MAXJf ght lower by_ dB) = 4.66 N/A 7.36 9.66 NIA Federal Advocacy. We brought on an advocate in Washington DC to both work with national air carrier groups and specific carriers, as well as with the FAA to help us in our efforts to have planes depart in a quieter manner. Deliverable here: hopefully good relationships with air carriers and others to help us solve problems locally. Friday Forums. We continue to host our Friday Forums to help us all learn more about airport operations and issues, and to collaborate as a community on strategies to protect against noise and other impacts. Anyone is welcome. We meet from 3:00 p.m. to about 4:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at the Civic Center. Several forums are coming up, three of which involve presentations by the County of Orange (as operator of the Airport) covering issues like Allocations of "Slots" (i.e. what carrier gets to fly out of JWA using what planes), how noise is monitored and reported, and the 1985 SS2-5 Information/Update About John Wayne Airport February 13, 2018 Page 6 JWA Settlement Agreement. The next forum is coming up on Friday, January 26th (at 3:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers — the subject is Noise 101) with others to follow on (tentatively) Friday, February 91h and Friday, March 9th. Deliverable here: a better understanding for all of us. If you have any questions about the above, please do not hesitate to ask. Thanks! Dave Kiff City Manager 949-644-3001 or dkiff@newportbeachca.gov SS2-6