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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFlying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission - 09/02/2010 APPROVED MINUTES FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2010 6:00 P.M. MET AT CITY CENTER FOR TRIP TO FAA AIR ROUTE TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTER, FARMINGTION, MN COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT: Vice-Chair Jeff Larsen; Commissioners: Judy Gentry, Mark Michelson (joined group at Traffic Control Center), Jeff Nawrocki and Kurt Schendel COMMISSION MEMBERS ABSENT: Chair Rick King and Commissioner Greg McKewan VISITORS: Dana Swanson, MAC and Chad Leqve, MAC FAA REPRESENTATIVES: Matt Cabak and Mark Harris STAFF: Scott Kipp, Senior Planner; Carol Pelzel, City Recorder I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Vice-Chair Larsen called the meeting to order at 6:06 p.m. Kipp and Michelson will join the Commission at the Traffic Control Center. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Larsen said he had several items he would like to add to the agenda time permitting. The first is an update on MAC noise letters. Larsen said he also wanted to provide the Commission with an update on the security report he presented to the City Council at their July 20 meeting. Everyone on the City Council was appreciative of the efforts of this Commission. Council Member Nelson was happy with the responses to her questions regarding security and safety. Council Member Aho was very positive in his remarks about the job done in terms of the security report. Larsen said he would like an update on the residential noise testing. Lewis indicated at their last meeting all residential noise testing would be done and Larsen thought there might be a report. Nawrocki said Lewis would not be at this evening's meeting and he was not sure the report has been completed. Larsen would like to add a Flying Cloud Fields update to the agenda. He understands the City and MAC are not in full agreement. Nawrocki said more information would be FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES September 2, 2010 Page 2 available at the next meeting and he suggested they discuss it then. They are very close to reaching an agreement. Larsen indicated a letter from Jennifer Lewis to Chair King regarding concerns by Mr. and Mrs. Neuharth for nighttime aircraft operations was included in the Commission's agenda material. In that letter, Lewis indicated she would have more information on the particular helicopter and other noise violations and he wondered if that information had been provided. Larsen said they could discuss the Flying Cloud Fields update at the Commission's next meeting and asked that the other items be added to the agenda under VI. Discussion Items. MOTION: Gentry moved, seconded by Schendel, to approve the agenda as modified. The motion carried, 4-0. III. PUBLIC COMMENT IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. COMMISSION AIRPORT TOUR HELD THURSDAY,JULY 8, 2010 On Page 2, third paragraph, Gentry asked that the last sentence be corrected to read "His work is down,but hopeful for the future." MOTION: Gentry moved, seconded by Schendel, to approve the July 8, 2010, airport tour minutes as amended. Motion carried, 4-0. B. COMMISSION MEETING HELD THURSDAY,JULY 8, 2010 On page 3, third paragraph, second to the last sentence, Gentry questioned what the word "granular" meant. King had used this word when discussing a policy for noise letters. Since King was not present to explain what he meant by this, Gentry suggested they continue this item to their next meeting. Larsen asked that the word "community" in the fourth paragraph of Page 4 be changed to "Commission" and the last sentence of the sixth paragraph on Page 4 be changed to read "Nawrocki said these flights would be considered pre- notification so they wouldn't get a letter." Larsen said formal action on these minutes will be taken at the next Commission meeting. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES September 2, 2010 Page 3 Gentry said the May minutes indicated Nawrocki would provide the Commission with the Airport Security Guide MAC had prepared. She asked if that guide had been received. Nawrocki said he did supply Kipp with copies but would bring more to the next Commission meeting. V. GUEST SPEAKERS VI. DISCUSSION ITEMS Larsen explained Chair King had sent him an e-mail stating he is unable to attend this evening's meeting and that he would like the Commission to resolve the issue regarding the mailing of noise letters. Kipp had received a red lined copy of the proposed letter from Chad Leqve with MAC. Larsen questioned if the City Attorney had reviewed and approved that letter. Larsen said he personally does not have any problems with the letter and it makes sense to consolidate the complaints into one letter. He also stated it appeared from previous discussions the consensus of the Commission was that a single letter for multiple complaints made sense. If any Commission members have problems with this letter the Commission can address those concerns. King would like the Commission to come up with a recommendation to the City Council. Gentry suggested they wait to hear if the City Attorney approved this letter before they make any recommendation. Schendel questioned if the letter is similar to what MAC has previously sent out other than consolidating the complaints. Nawrocki said he believes the letter is the same with the exception of the listing of operations. (See Item VI. B. below for additional discussion of this item.) RECESS A recess was called at 6:40 p.m. with the meeting to reconvene after a tour of the FAA Air Route Traffic Control Center in Farmington, MN A. TOUR OF FAA AIR ROUTE TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTER, FARMINGTON, MN Commissioner Michelson, Scott Kipp, Chad Leqve and Dana Swanson joined the Commission. Matt Cabak, Air Traffic Controller, welcomed the Commission and introduced Mark Harris, Air Traffic Controller. He explained the Minneapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) is one of 22 route centers that make up the air space system for the entire United States. The Center is broken into six different areas of air space and those areas are broken into sectors. There are 7,000 airplanes in mass in communication with the Minneapolis Center. The role of an ARTCC is to provide for the safe, orderly, and expeditious flow of instrument flight rules aircraft between airports. Centers also provide departure and approach FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES September 2, 2010 Page 4 control services at airports not served by an approach control facility. Minneapolis Center is responsible for the safe progression of air traffic in an area extending over 330,000 square miles of airspace. This airspace covers all or parts of nine states; including Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Michigan, Kansas, and Missouri. Minneapolis Center services 18 separate approach control facilities and 210 airports with authorized instrument approach procedures. Cabak presented a video on what occurs at the Minneapolis Center and reviewed the services that are provided to the pilots by this Center. The Commission toured the Traffic Management Unit Center and the operational areas of the center. There are six areas with approximately 50 certified professional controllers in each area with six and eight sectors per area. On behalf of the Commission, Larsen thanked Cabak and Harris for their hospitality and for the informative tour. B. MAC NOISE LETTERS TO FCM AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS (The Flying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission reconvened at 9:01 p.m.) (See additional discussion of this item under Discussion Items above.) Larsen again explained that Chair King wanted the Commission to address the noise complaint letters issued to people in apparent violation of the voluntary protocols. One of the questions Larsen had is if the letter included in the Commission's agenda material from Chad Leqve had been reviewed by the City Attorney and if so, did he find the change to the letter acceptable. Kipp said the City Attorney did review the letter and felt the language changes were fine. Larsen said the Commission has talked about this subject a number of different occasions and it seemed the general consensus of the Commission is that they are in favor of forwarding a recommendation to the City Council to change the way the noise letters are sent out from the existing method of sending them for each violation. The new format would be more in a statement form that collects the violation information over a period of time and a letter would be sent out once a month rather than for each violation. Kipp explained the proposed letter does not require City Council approval. The City Attorney looked at the letter and feels it is in compliance with the existing language within the Final Agreement. This revised letter is something the City Manager could accept. Larsen asked if the Commission should then make a recommendation to the City Manager stating they like the new format and that the new procedure should be implemented. Michelson questioned if the Commission wants to move forward with this letter without a City Council recommendation. Once they do this, it is done and if it is FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES September 2, 2010 Page 5 within the guidelines, there is no reason for MAC to change back. He suggested they get City Council approval even if they are not required to do so. At least let them know the Commission has done this and that the City Attorney has reviewed the letter. Michelson said he feels this letter is the way to address the violations and he is in favor of it, however, he would like City Council endorsement of this procedure. Kipp suggested this information be sent to the City Manager and to let the City Manager decide whether or not the City Council is required to look at it. Michelson suggested they wait until after the election so this issue doesn't become political. Larsen explained they are an Advisory Commission and it is not their place to accept or reject the letter but to make recommendations to the City Manager and to the City Council. Larsen said it is in the best interest of all parties involved to go through this modified procedure and perhaps they should let the City Manager make the decision of whether or not the letter should be reviewed by the City Council. MOTION: Motion was made by Schendel, seconded by Michelson, to table discussion of the MAC noise letter to the November meeting to determine what the City government will look like after the election. The motion carried, 5-0. C. MULTILATERATION PROJECT UPDATE Leqve reported MAC is in the final stages of developing the web based flight tracking application. They anticipate that will be available on MAC's website October 1. He indicated at the November meeting MAC staff will do a demonstration of that technology. D. NEUHARTH LETTER Larsen said in the Commission's agenda material there was a letter to Chair King from MAC regarding a letter sent to Mr. and Mrs. Neuharth. Lewis from MAC had sent information to the Neuharth's stating she would have more information about their helicopter complaints and would forward that information to them once she received it. Larsen was questioning if that information was forwarded to the Neuharth's and suggested since Lewis was not at this meeting it be discussed at their November meeting. VII. EDUCATIONAL ITEMS FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES September 2, 2010 Page 6 VIII. FINAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN CITY AND MAC A. NOISE COMPLAINTS/STAGE 2 OPERATIONS REPORT (JULY- AUGUST) Swanson explained the report distributed only covers the month of July. Complainants have until September 5 to file August complaints so the August information was not complete. Swanson said as requested by the Commission, they did a complaint to operation correlation and that information is included on the report. The report now includes a column for correlation and a column for aircraft type. There were 491 complaints for July, 2010 compared to 419 in July, 2009. Of the 491 complaints, 425 of them were correlated to an operation and 28 of the complaints were not correlated to an operation. There were 36 complaints that were duplicate complaints correlated to the same operation and two run-up complaints not correlated to an identified run-up. Swanson reported there were 175 FCM nighttime operations with 72 operations generating one or more complaints. In response to a question from Schendel, Swanson explained the report does not show multiple complaints for the same flights. Swanson further reported there were 306 operations in July that generated one or more complaints. Michelson said he had contacted Swanson and asked for data from May/June. He took those complaints and reviewed them as if they were compressed into one day and generated four scenarios. Michelson reviewed those scenarios with the Commission and explained his information showed most complaints were occurring between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. Michelson said he would have thought most of the complaints would have occurred between 10 p.m. and midnight He said he would now like to determine which day of the week most of the complaints are received. Michelson asked Swanson to provide him with the information from July/August. IX. OTHER BUSINESS Michelson said at the last City Council meeting there was discussion between MAC and the City Council regarding zoning restrictions for a business development park. It was his understanding the City wants to get some legal understanding about the zoning and its implications from MAC. There appeared to be some controversy and he suggested the Commission be provided with an update on this issue at their next meeting. Leqve said he understands the discussions between MAC's legal counsel and City staff have gone very well and they are on the path to a conclusion. Michelson asked for an update at their November meeting. Larsen said he would also like an update on the ball fields at Flying Cloud. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES September 2, 2010 Page 7 A. VARIOUS FYI ITEMS 1. Approved FCAAC Minutes of May 13, 2010 2. Report to City Council—Review of Security at Flying Cloud Airport 3. Next Commission meeting—November 4, 2010 X. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Motion was made by Gentry, seconded by Michelson, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried, 5-0. The meeting adjourned at 9:45 p.m.