Fed up with complaints from residents, the City Council, at Monday evening’s meeting, directed City Atty. Carol Schwab to file a lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration related to aircraft overflights.
Over the past several years, hundreds of Culver City residents have brought their complaints about noisy overflights to City Council meetings.
More than 1,000 complaints were submitted to the FAA and to LAX regarding serious concerns about current noise and pollution impacts of the aircraft overflights.
The FAA has issued an environmental assessment of its Southern California Metroplex changing flight path procedures.
Recently, 300 residents signed a petition submitted to the City Council, requesting that the Council take legal action against the FAA to protect them against further impacts from the So Cal Metroplex project.
The lawsuit will challenge the FAA’s Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact and Record of Decision for the Southern California Metroplex Project.
The project is a key component of the FAA’s Next Generation Air Transportation System. It redesigns the airspace in the Southern California region, affecting arrival and departure procedures for 21 airports, including LAX.
As the responsible agency for implementation of the new procedures, the FAA proposes to replace dozens of existing conventional air traffic procedures with new satellite-based procedures. The result will be a change in procedures for flight paths, with increases in noise, air pollution and other impacts on numerous communities throughout Southern California, including Culver City.
The city alleges that in its analysis of the Environmental Assessment, the FAA omitted significant aspects of the environmental review process and used incorrect models for certain analyses.
This includes, but is not limited to, review of noise and air quality impacts, greenhouse gas emissions, and the cumulative impacts of the new procedures.
“The city believes there are significant errors in the SoCal Metroplex Environmental Assessment,” says Mayor Jim Clarke, “which will result in further impacts to residents.
“They already have experienced an increase in noise and air pollution from planes flying at lower altitudes along narrowed flight paths.”
Mr. Clarke said he hopes that “other jurisdictions that are also impacted to join with us in our efforts. We want the FAA to recognize that communities around the country are subject to these negative consequences.
“Our hope is the FAA will work with us and other communities to mitigate the serious impacts on our residents’ quality- of-life from these flight path changes.”
The City Council directed the City Attorney to file a Petition for Review in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, by Friday’s filing deadline.
The Finding of No Significant Impact/ Record of Decision, as well as the Draft and Final Environmental Assessments, are available on the SoCal Metroplex project website at http://www.metroplexenvironmental.com/socal_metroplex/socal_introduction.html
For more information about Culver City’s efforts, see the city’s website.
Ms. Wolfberg may be contacted at shelly.wolfberg@culvercity.org