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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFlying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission - 01/10/2013 APPROVED MINUTES FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION THURSDAY,JANUARY 10, 2013 7:00 P.M. CITY CENTER HERITAGE ROOM 1 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT: Jeff Larsen, Chair; Keith Tschohl, Vice-Chair; Commissioners: Caryl Hansen, Jeff Nawrocki, John Pratten and Joe Sutila COMMISSION MEMBERS ABSENT: Commissioner Ben McQuillan STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES PRESENT: Peter Humbert COMMISSION STAFF PRESENT: George Esbensen, Eden Prairie Fire Chief Carol Pelzel, Recorder VISITORS: Dana Nelson, MAC Representative I. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Chair Larsen called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Tschohl moved, seconded by Pratten, to approve the agenda as presented. The motion carried 6-0. III. PUBLIC COMMENT IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. COMMISSION MEETING HELD THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2012—TOUR OF MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL CONTROL TOUR MOTION: Motion was made by Sutila, seconded by Tschohl, to approve the November 8, 2012 minutes as presented. The motion carried 6-0. V. DISCUSSION ITEMS (not discussed in this order) A. FCAAC ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS 1. Introduction of George Esbensen as New Staff Liaison Larsen introduced George Esbensen, Eden Prairie Fire Chief, as the new staff liaison for the Commission, replacing Scott Kipp. Commission members and student representative Gadel introduced themselves. Esbensen provided the Commission with a brief FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES January 10, 2013 Page 2 background of his work experience explaining in 2002 he became Eden Prairie's first full-time Fire Chief and also serves as their Director of Emergency Management. Esbensen explained the Fire Department enjoys an excellent operational relationship with Flying Cloud Airport. 2. Commission Roster Verification A Commission roster listing names and addresses of members was passed around and members were asked to update their information and to indicate which information they did not want public. 3. Distribution Method(s) of FCAAC Information Larsen asked the Commission how they would like to receive future Commission information. It has been recommended they move more toward electronic distribution rather than mailed hard copy. Tschohl said it is nice to have a paper copy to mark up at the meeting,however, electronic information would get to them faster and is easier to archive and search for information at a later date. He indicated he would have no problem with electronic distribution and would print what he would need since he likes to have a paper copy at the meeting. Pratten said he is fine with either method. Hansen said she is okay with receiving the information electronically but would probably print the information out herself. Sutila said he would prefer to receive a paper copy in the mail because it is easier for him to read. Nawrocki said he would prefer to receive it electronically but either method would be okay with him. Esbensen said this is something he discussed with Chair Larsen. They are trying to cut down on paper consumption and there is a lot of information included in the Commission's agenda material including past minutes, newspaper articles, etc. and by not reproducing those they can save a lot on paper. He suggested they send out the attachments to the agenda electronically. He also suggested they mail the agenda to those members who want a paper copy and to the other members they would send electronically. Larsen suggested a paper copy be mailed to Sutila and himself and electronically to the other Commission members and if members want to change the method in which they are receiving the agenda they can do so. 4. 2013 FCAAC Meeting Schedule Larsen indicated the Commission's meeting schedule was included in their agenda for 2013. He asked Commission members to let Esbensen or himself know if they are unable attend any of those meetings. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES January 10, 2013 Page 3 Tschohl asked if any of the meetings on the schedule are planned to be held any time other than 7 p.m. and at the City Center. In the past they have had tours at various facilities. Larsen responded normally they tour Flying Cloud Airport at their July meeting. He is contemplating doing that at an earlier meeting or on a weekend when the student representatives are available since their term on the Commission is up in the spring. Larsen asked Commission members to let him know if they have an individual or business they think this Commission should meet with so it can be added to their meeting schedule. He said the Operator of the Year award would probably take place at their March meeting. Rick King, MAC Commissioner, has also volunteered to meet with them to discuss what is going on with the MAC Commission. 5. Interest in Possible FCM Weekend Tour As discussed above, Larsen said since the student representatives' terms on the Commission are up in the spring he would like to have them tour Flying Cloud Airport prior to their leaving the Commission. Because of their schedule they may have to schedule a tour on the weekend but would still have a tour of the airport in July for Commission members. He said he would keep the Commission apprised as to when a tour would be scheduled. Pratten said if they do a tour with the student representatives prior to their July meeting he would like to be included in that tour. B. NOISE COMPLAINTS/STAGE 2 OPERATIONS REPORT FOR NOVEMBER/DECEMBER Dana Nelson, MAC Representative, presented the noise complaints received by MAC for the months of November and December, 2012. She explained an additional map was provided relating to a complaint Chair Larsen wanted her to look further into. Nelson reported for the month of November there were a total of 200 noise complaints compared to 3,326 complaints filed in 2011. Of the 200 complaints received, 113 of those complaints were nighttime complaints. The reason for the large number in 2011 was because one of the noise complainers had submitted over 3,000 of the complaints. If they remove those complaints, the 2011 numbers are fairly consistent with the 2012 numbers. The number of households complaining is one more than in 2011 and the nighttime complaints are down from last year. Ten letters will be sent out compared to 15 sent in 2011. The number of operations generating a letter was 27 compared to 35 in 2011. The total operations are down from 2011 and nighttime operations are also down. Larsen asked if the person submitting most of the complaints for November 2012, number 30 on the map, is a new individual or someone who has previously filed complaints. Nelson responded this person has been submitting complaints for a period of time. Typically, this person is the number one complainer every month. They did reach out to this person via e- mail in the fall of 2012 saying if they wanted to discuss this further they should contact MAC. They did not receive a response from that person. Tschohl asked if the address of that person is in the Hennepin Village Subdivision. Nelson said it is. Nelson explained an e-mail had been submitted to Kipp regarding excessive run-up noise on November 21. She looked into the flight tracking system and provided a map to the FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES January 10, 2013 Page 4 Commission on what was occurring during that period of time, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Unfortunately, they did not receive this complaint until this week and were unable to listen to the radio frequency communication because old information is deleted from that system. They did,however,have a noise meter at the airport during that time. There were six noise events during that time period. The meter is set to record events 65 decibels or greater for over one minute. Two of the events recorded were at 4:23 p.m. for 1.34 minutes with a maximum noise level at 71 decibels and 9:17 p.m. for 1:01 minutes at 68.7 decibels. There did not appear to be anything unusual during those times. Nelson said the complainant indicated there was a run-up in excess of 1.5 hours. If there had been, the noise meter would have picked this up for the entire duration. Nawrocki said he had talked to the air traffic tower person who worked during that time frame and they were not aware of any run- up for that length of time. Nelson reported this message had been sent to Kipp on January 4 for an event that occurred on November 21 and they were provided this information the beginning of last week. Nelson said they felt it strange that they did not receive numerous complaints for something that occurred for 90 minutes. She indicated MAC can contact this individual if the Commission would like them to and let this person know what they found through this investigation. Larsen said he thinks it would be a good idea to contact this person and to copy the Commission on any correspondence with the individual. He also asked that she include information about this Commission and to list Esbensen or himself as contacts. Tschohl suggested they also verify the date of the complaint since it was not received until January when the event occurred in November. He said they should also mention that maintenance run-ups during those hours are not prohibited by the Final Agreement between the City and MAC. Tschohl said it is entirely possible that someone was going out for 5-10 minutes and then going back in to do some work on the plane and then back out several times. He asked where on the airport is the noise meter located. Nelson responded at that time it was located between the parallel runways west of the north/south runway. Currently, there is no noise meter at the airport. They are working on getting something out there that is more permanent and solar powered. Nelson presented the noise complaints for December, 2012. There were 231 total complaints with 109 of those complaints being nighttime complaints. Compared to this same time period in 2011 there were 139 complaints. They will be sending out seven letters for 2012 and in 2011 they sent out ten letters. The number of operators generating letters was 23 and in 2011 there were 28. Total Flying Cloud operations were down about 5 percent from last year and nighttime operations were also down. C. CITY WEBSITE PRESENTATION/REVIEW EVALUATION REPORT Pratten briefly reviewed the FCAAC website analytics included in the Commission's agenda material. He indicated the information looks very similar to what was previously presented. He explained he worked with the City's Communications person after the Commission's last meeting with the recommendation that they wanted to do some additional comparisons for one period versus another period. The best option would be to be able to compare the FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES January 10, 2013 Page 5 different periods on the actual site. Pratten said they want to make sure they are providing a unified face to the City and to tell staff this is what they want and what on their list can they actually do. He said the Commission also talked about having the ability to have extra pages for images of the airport and possibly a video of a plane making an approach to make the airport friendlier. He said he is not sure all of that will be available but he will continue to work on that. Larsen asked how often the Commission would like to review this information. He explained previously it was done on an annual basis. Pratten said one of his concerns is that the Commission receives this data and they look at it but what do they actually do with it. He questions what their goal is. He said they may want to look at the data once a year to see what the trends are and to see if there is anything they can do to the site to get more hits but is that what they want. Pratten said as a group they should talk about what they want and what they are trying to do with the data. Larsen said he has noticed on the FCAAC's website there is not as much information on it as there had been in the past. Larsen asked if with the City's new formatted website are they being limited in terms of space or content. It appears there is a stripped down version of what they previously had on the site. Esbensen said when the City made the switch to the new web format they tried to streamline it. Esbensen explained, within reason, there can be changes to the site but it has to be kept current. He asked what those analytics tell the Commission. They can measure anything they want but what does it mean and do they even care as a Commission. They also need to decide what they are going to do with that information once they receive it. Larsen explained one of the purposes of the website is to move noise complaint calls from the telephone to the internet so they could be more efficiently handled by MAC. It also allows them to see what people are looking at and how that changes over time. Larsen said the Commission would only need to review this information on a yearly basis rather than a monthly basis. If over several years the usage rate goes down they may want to discontinue the site. Tschohl said it is interesting to see the history over a period of time to determine if there are more hits to the site relating to controversial items or when certain events occur. Also, the Commission's mission statement is to monitor the Final Agreement between the City and MAC and this site provides them with information on how the City and MAC accomplish that. Perhaps the City should be promoting the benefits of the airport to its residents and the community. Tschohl said to this extent, there is some justification to at least acknowledge this Commission's presence as a government entity. They want to be as neutral as they can but also provide the community with information. He said to minimize the bad affects of the airport they should promote the good things of the airport as well. Tschohl suggested that between now and the Commission's next meeting they review the website so they know what they are talking about and maybe at the July meeting they review the analytics again. Pratten questioned if there is still historical data available for comparison purposes. Larsen suggested they do a monthly comparison through the July meeting. Pratten said he would have a year-to-date comparison available at the March meeting. Larsen said he may have a FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES January 10, 2013 Page 6 three to four year annual year-to-date comparison and will see if he can have that available for the March meeting. Tschohl said the website was launched on April 17, 2012. Larsen said the site does need to be brought up-to-date. Larsen asked Commission members to review the site prior to their March meeting. Pratten said he would send a note to City staff and copy the Commission requesting analytics for year-to-date information for 2012 and 2011 if available. This will allow them to compare 2011, 2012 and year-to-date data. He questioned going forward if the report should be from July 1 through June 30 year-on-year or should they do an analysis annually on the calendar year. Larsen said he would like to see a month-to-year comparison, the same time period for each year seems to make sense rather than on a meeting basis. Pratten said he will add the Commission's statement, photo and noise data to the site. Larsen said they should also include updated agendas and minutes. Esbensen explained the City's website has a search tool to obtain minutes for the various Commissions and by using the sites document search function the minutes can be obtained. Esbensen questioned why this information is important to the Commission and how much energy are they spending to gather this information. He asked what the driver is on the analytical information. Tschohl said it helps them to determine what information people are looking for. For example, if web traffic is up in July they may be looking for information on the Air Expo at Flying Cloud and the City site help them find that information. He said the main benefit is the current view of what people are looking for right now. Larsen said the Commission can look at the prior years' information and this year's information and if there is a spike they can determine what was happening that month. If at the end of this year they find things haven't changed they may consider discontinuing the site. Larsen explained the original intent was not to require a lot of analysis from this Commission or work from City staff. D. 2012 FCAAC WORK PLAN PRESENTATION FOR CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP SESSION FEBRUARY 5, 2013 Larsen reported the Commission will be making a presentation to the City Council on February 5. This year the Council is asking the Chair and Vice-Chair of each Commission to make a 5 to 7 minute presentation to the Council as to what the Commission has accomplished and plans to accomplish in the upcoming year. Larsen asked Commission members to let Esbensen know if they plan to attend that meeting so they can plan accordingly. Larsen explained since the Council presentation will be prior to the Commission's next regularly scheduled meeting he compiled a report for the Council. He asked Commission members for their input on this report. Nawrocki said he would prepare a report on operations at the airport to be included in the report to Council. That report will give the City Council an idea of what activity is going on at the airport. Nawrocki said the report prepared by Larsen is thorough and realistic considering the number of times the Commission has met. He also likes the new format. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES January 10, 2013 Page 7 Sutila questioned if the Joint Airport Zoning Board (JAZB) is still in existence and how often they meet. Larsen explained JAZB has been put in limbo because of some legal cases. Until the legal cases are resolved, which may occur in late 2013, JAZB will not be reactivated. He will add this information to the report to Council. Larsen reviewed the function of JAZB in response to a question from Sutila. MOTION: Motion was made by Pratten, seconded by Hansen, to present the report prepared by Larsen to the City Council on February 5, 2013. Motion carried 6-0. VI. EDUCATIONAL ITEMS Larsen reported the City Council approved the second reading of an Ordinance Amendment to the City Code relating to creation of Airport Commercial and Airport Office Zoning Districts. VII. NOISE ABATEMENT/AIRCRAFT INCIDENTS A. NTSB FINAL REPORT FOR 10/2/2012 CIRRUS CRASH Larsen said a report from the National Transportation Safety Board was included in the Commission's agenda material regarding the Cirrus crash at Flying Cloud on October 2, 2012. VIII. NEW BUSINESS XI. OTHER BUSINESS A. VARIOUS FYI ITEMS Larsen had distributed to the Commission Life in the Prairie newsletter prepared by the City. The FCAAC was listed under Eden Prairie Commissions. Larsen had also distributed a memo from Gary Schmidt, Director of Reliever Airports, regarding his presentation and request for authorization to conduct a public hearing on minimum standards for reliever airports. Nawrocki explained the minimum standards pertain to businesses at the reliever airports. To make sure businesses are competitive they want to ensure they all have the same requirements for hangar space, ramp space and parking. The last standards were adopted in 1992 and this process will update those standards. They are not proposing changes that will have a major impact on operators. Nawrocki said MAC staff met with the operators and explained specifically how the new standards will apply to them. Larsen also reported MAC approved a permanent utility easement modification for the Schussler Barn Property. Larsen asked if everyone at the airport is hooked up to the utilities. Nawrocki explained all of the utilities are available but it is not mandatory that everyone hook up to them. Businesses are required to hook up to sewer and water and they all have. FLYING CLOUD AIRPORT ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES January 10, 2013 Page 8 Larsen said it would be nice for the Commission to receive the agenda listing of the MAC meetings especially as it pertains to Flying Cloud Airport. Nawrocki said he will send the MAC Commission information to Esbensen. 1. Approved minutes of September 12, 2012 meeting. 2. 2013 meeting schedule. 3. Eden Prairie City Council Workshop Session, February 5, 2013 4. Next Commission meeting—March 14, 2013. a. Operator of the Year b. Continue website discussion c. Contact student representatives to coordinate a spring tour of the airport. XII. ADJOURNMENT Motion: Motion was made by Tschohl, seconded by Pratten, to adjourn the meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 8:55 p.m.