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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFlying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission - 11/12/2009 APPROVED MINUTES FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2009 7:00 P.M. CITY CENTER Heritage Room I 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Rick King; Vice-Chair Jeff Larsen; Commissioners: Judy Gentry, Greg McKewan, Mark Michelson, Jeff Nawrocki (arrived at 7:25 p.m.) and Kurt Schendel COMMISSION MEMBERS ABSENT: None STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES: Sam Clark and Tanay Mehta VISITORS: Bridget Reif, MAC Jennifer Lewis, MAC STAFF: Scott Kipp, Senior Planner Carol Pelzel, City Recorder I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Chair King called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Schendel moved, seconded by McKewan, to approve the agenda as presented. Motion carried, 6-0. III. PUBLIC COMMENT IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. COMMISSION MEETING HELD THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2009 Michelson asked that the minutes reflect additional discussion regarding the location of Runway 18/36. He suggested they add a sentence after the fourth sentence of the second paragraph of Page 3 stating"This was discussed and determined the end of the runway would be about 300 feet away from Pioneer Trail." FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES November 12, 2009 Page 2 MOTION: Larsen moved, seconded by Michelson, to approve the September 10, 2009, minutes as corrected. Motion carried, 6-0. B. COMMISSION AIRPORT TOUR HELD TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2009 MOTION: Gentry moved, seconded by Larsen, to approve the October 20, 2009, meeting notes as presented. Motion carried, 6-0. V. GUEST SPEAKERS VI. DISCUSSION ITEMS A. FCAAC 2009 YEAR-END REPORT AND 2010 GOALS King presented a brief overview of the draft 2009 Year-End Report and 2010 Goals and Work Plan and asked for Commission input. A final version of this document will be presented to the Commission at their January meeting for formal adoption. King asked Commission members to provide any edits/additions to Kipp by December 31. He explained the report addresses this year's goals and what has been accomplished as well as the Commission's goals for next year and their work plan. An important item included in the report was the development of the Pilot's Guide and he asked additional copies be provided for the City Council. Kipp suggested they include feedback MAC may have received from pilots regarding this guide. McKewan suggested they mention the work that is being done to improve the airport and Kipp suggested they add a sentence regarding their environmental meeting with the airport. McKewan said he would write something about the appearance of Flying Cloud Airport. McKewan also suggested they include more information about the Multilateration Project in the document. This information does not stand out in the document and the information should be included in its own paragraph. King said it was addressed more in depth in last year's report but they can certainly add more information to this report. Lewis said they are currently collecting information with the Multilateration system and it is in the testing stages. (Nawrocki arrived during discussion of this item.) Nawrocki reported they plan to present the Operator of the Year at the Commission's next meeting. Kipp said he has asked staff for web trends for the year. Larsen suggested they change the cycle to go from November through October so the information is available for the year-end report rather than wait until the end of the year. It was agreed they should use a 12-month cycle ending October 31 for gathering web trend information. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES November 12, 2009 Page 3 B. MAC'S LONG-TERM COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AND COMMENT PERIOD Bridget Reif of MAC presented a PowerPoint presentation updating the Commission on construction occurring at Flying Cloud Airport. She explained the 5,000 foot runway will be opened on November 13 with the instrument landing system not available until February 10, 2010. She further explained the Long-Term Capital Improvement Plan draft will be available November 23 and will be placed on MAC's website. The written comment period will run from November 23 to December 22. Commission members asked that they be provided with a hard copy of this document for their review. Reif reported once the comment period is over MAC will review the responses and if warranted, will respond to those comments and incorporate them into the document. They anticipate having the Plan back to the MAC Commission in February. King asked if a public meeting is required beyond MAC. Reif responded there is no requirement for a public meeting other than MAC's. She explained notice of the comment period will be advertised in the local newspapers as well as the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press. Reif said they are not anticipating a lot of comments, however, if they do receive substantial comments they will have to look at their draft again and make the necessary changes. Reif explained the Runway 18/36 alternatives have been changed from what was originally presented to this Commission. Originally, the first alternative was to shorten the runway from 2,691 feet to 2,633 feet and the second alternative was to shorten the end of the runway and shift it to the north to maintain the same runway length. They did not like this alternative because of issues with the taxiway and they could not justify spending the money for this work. She further explained they looked at the impacts of these changes and discovered Runway 18 is the second most used runway at the airport. This information resulted in a third alternative being developed which shifts the runway to the north and extends it from 2,691 feet to 2,800 feet for a 109 foot net increase. This alternative also places the runway at least 300 feet away from Pioneer Trail. Staff feels this is the preferred alternative. Kipp pointed out at their last review the noise contour was further out and he questioned why this was different. Reif explained the noise contour is based on the number of operations. The end of the runway was moved almost 200 feet to the west and that pulls the contour in. McKewan said the noise contour should not be based on the number of flights because there is a certain amount of noise no matter how many operations there are. Reif explained the noise contour is different than the single point noise. The FAA's method of evaluating noise is by the day/night contour. Kipp mentioned the operations and quiet times in between are averaged out. Reif reviewed the Comprehensive Plan recommendations explaining they continue to work with the tenants to remove obstructions from the taxiways. There is a project in the Comprehensive Improvement Program to install utilities and they will not do that until they have tenants who want to build in that area. There have also been discussions FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES November 12, 2009 Page 4 about moving the Air Traffic Control Tower. Since this is an FAA facility MAC will have to work with them to relocate it. Kipp said from the City's standpoint, MAC needs to consider the physical impact of hangar development to the neighborhood especially for the treatment of facades, building screening, etc. Reif responded it is their position that the building area in its entirety was considered in the previous plan and EIS. Moving forward with the aesthetics will be a cooperative effort between MAC and the City. The CIP does show money will be expended on this building area but those funds are for utilities. McKewan asked how much input the City will have once they begin construction of new hangars. Reif explained MAC does have an ordinance that talks about maintaining the buildings but not about construction material, design standards, etc. The building area is incorporated into the EIS and noise issues were considered at that time. As far as aesthetics, the City had certain requirements the tenants abided by. New construction standards are separate from MAC's current ordinance. Nawrocki explained there is an ordinance in a final draft and includes what the City has in their ordinance and all new hangars will be reviewed through the City. Those requirements will be taken into consideration when they begin construction on the south building area and they will work with the City. hi response to a question from Michelson, Reif explained the area Michelson is questioning is identified as a potential site for expanding the hangar area. This area is not included in the EIS and is not a ready site. They cannot fully build out the hangar area unless the tower is moved because of visibility issues. VII. EDUCATIONAL ITEMS A. FOLLOW-UP TO MEETING WITH HENNEPIN VILLAGE ASSOCIATIONS' BOARD MEMBERS Nawrocki reported the meeting with the Association of Hennepin Village went very well. A lot of information was clarified and misconceptions were cleared up. Larsen said he also attended the meeting and found everyone to be very cordial. He was impressed with the questions asked and how MAC responded to the questions and suggestions. It appeared that everything suggested by the Association had already been considered by MAC. VIII. FINAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN CITY AND MAC A. NOISE COMPLAINTS/STAGE 2 OPERATIONS REPORT (SEPTEMBER- OCTOBER) Lewis reported for the months of September and October complaints were up a little from 658 to 709 with 72 households reporting compared to 56 in July and August. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES November 12, 2009 Page 5 Nighttime complaints were down to 172 for September and October compared to 235 for July and August. The top six complainants account for almost 60 percent of the complaints with 418 complaints submitted by those top six. In response to a question from McKewan, Lewis explained the Multilateration system will have more complaint track information. Right now flight tracking data is dependent on the FAA's radar. It is possible the Multilateration system will help with system deficiencies and will provide them with more complete, accurate and precise data. IX. NOISE ABATEMENT/AIRCRAFT INCIDENTS A. LIFE LINK III HELICOPTER FLIGHT TRACKS (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER) Lewis reported helicopter complaints have shown a decrease from 256 to 237 for September and October. There were approximately 30 complaints specifically related to helicopter operation with an event held by Grace Church in September. Nighttime complaints totaled one compared to ten for the previous time period. The number of people filing helicopter complaints totaled 17 compared to 22 from July and August. Lewis reviewed the violation letter summary and explained there were no Stage H operations that occurred at Flying Cloud in September and October. B. OCTOBER 8, 2009 AIRPLANE CRASH Nawrocki reported the accident involved one individual who survived the crash. The FAA's initial report indicated the pilot departed from Anoka but did not intend to come to Flying Cloud. MAC is working with the tower, City, Police and Fire to come up with some new procedures for off-airport instances. They want to make sure there is communication between all agencies and parties. There were some issues as to who was handling the incident since it was off-airport property. X. NEW BUSINESS XI. OTHER BUSINESS A. VARIOUS FYI ITEMS 1. Approved Airport Tour Notes and FCAAC Minutes of July 9, 2009 2. KFCM Pilot Guide and City Council memo 3. Letter to Warren McVey on helicopter operations complaints 4. MAC FD&E Committee memos on LTCP and runway incursion project 5. City Manager Friday Reports on airport related items 6. Graphics from MAC meeting with Hennepin Village Associations' Boards 7. Graphics from Airport Tour on October 20, 2009 FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES November 12, 2009 Page 6 8. MAC Notice of Public Hearing on Acquisition of Property for RPZ 9. Various Airport/Aviation Related News Articles 10. Next Commission meeting—January 14, 2010 Michelson said he believes the work they did on the Pilot Guide is newsworthy and he suggested they submit it to the local newspaper letting the residents know what they are doing. McKewan suggested the text in the boxes under Arrival Procedures of the Pilot Guide be black rather than green. The green text is difficult to read. King said they should also have a story written about the Multilateration System once it is operational and they have received data from it. He agreed it would be a good idea to put something in the newspaper about the Pilot Guide and indicate it was a work product of both MAC and this Commission to inform pilots about the noise abatement procedures and to provide them with information about the airport. McKewan suggested they add a presentation on the Multilateration System to their 2010 work plan. Schendel reminded the Commission that on Friday, November 13, the south runway and Bravo taxiway would be opened. Also, one week from today the gates will be locked and operational. King said he would draft something for the newspaper regarding the Pilot Guide, Multilateration System, locked gates and the new runway. Schendel explained the construction taking place at the airport has been seamless and MAC staff and the construction crews should be credited for that. There are a lot of airports that wish they looked like Flying Cloud. Schendel said from an operator's standpoint and with what they had to work with the project is outstanding and he commended MAC for what they have done. MOTION: Schendel moved, seconded by Gentry, that the Flying Cloud Airports Advisory Commission draft a letter to be sent to MAC staff regarding the timely completion of the airport expansion project and the improvements of the runway specifically from a safety standpoint and for the communication and cooperation with the Flying Cloud Airports Advisory Commission. Larsen offered a friendly amendment to include a thank you for the work done by MAC staff Joe Harris and Scott Skramstad who no longer serve on or work with the Commission. Schendel and Gentry agreed to the amendment. Motion carried, 7-0. XII. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Motion was made by Gentry, seconded by McKewan, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried, 7-0. The meeting adjourned at 8:50 p.m.