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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-63 - Relating to the Federal Aviation Administration’s Implementation of the Southern California Metroplex Project at John Wayne AirportRESOLUTION NO. 2017-63 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA, RELATING TO THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION'S IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA METROPLEX PROJECT AT JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT WHEREAS, the City of Newport Beach ("City") and the Newport Beach City Council ("City Council") have maintained as a primary objective the goal of protecting community residents from the impacts of commercial operations at John Wayne Airport ("JWA" or the "Airport"); WHEREAS, to address the concerns of its residents regarding the Airport, the City Council first convened the Aviation Committee ("Committee") in 1979, and, since then, it has met continuously to, among other things, monitor the impacts of JWA on the City and residential quality of life as well as to oversee the implementation of Council Policy A-17 ("Airport Policy"); WHEREAS, the Airport is owned and operated by the County of Orange (County), and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) controls aircraft flight paths and altitudes. While the City has no legal authority to directly regulate operations at the Airport, in 1985 the City, after litigation with the County and joined by citizen partners within the Airport Working Group (AWG) and Stop Polluting Our Newport (SPON) entered into and helped create the landmark JWA Settlement Agreement (Agreement); WHEREAS, this Agreement is the only airport operating agreement like it in the United States intended to align the Airport with neighborhood quality of life concerns, including passenger caps per year, limits on the amount of the loudest flights, the placement and continuance of a curfew, and more; WHEREAS, when the Federal Government in 1990 took actions against the Agreement, the City through aggressive lobbying efforts and with extensive community support (including from AWG and SPON) successfully obtained a grandfathering provision in the 1990 Airport Noise and Capacity Act (ANCA) which recognized the Agreement and protected the existing limitations on access and noise set forth in the Agreement; WHEREAS, the Federal Government acting through the FAA sought in or about 1990 to modify noise abatement departure procedures at JWA, the City, with the cooperation of the County, aggressively and actively participated in and assisted in the testing of departure procedures conducted at JWA which resulted in the development of FAA Advisory Circular 91-53A, Noise Abatement Departure Profiles (NADP); WHEREAS, the Agreement was extended and amended over time (in both 2002 and 2014), generally to continue the curfew hours and to allow modest changes in the passenger cap and to the amount of "Class A" Average Daily Departures (ADDS), all in compliance with the requirements of ANCA; Resolution No. 2017-63 Page 2 of 6 WHEREAS, also in 2006 the City, consistent with its Airport Policy negotiated a Cooperative Agreement (also referred to as the Spheres Agreement) to protect against further physical expansion of the Airport; WHEREAS, other actions taken by the City in response to concerns expressed by the community and in furtherance of its Airport Policy include the 2008 ARTS Study ("JWA-OC Airport - Departure Noise Impact Analysis"), 2008's "Go Local" study that evaluated JWA use and transit connections, 2009's air quality testing analysis done by Dr. Karleen Sudol-Boyle, and the convening in the early 2010s of the Corridor Cities group (including the cities of Costa Mesa, Irvine, Tustin, Orange, Laguna Woods, Laguna Beach, and others) leading up to the 2014 Settlement Agreement extension and amendment; WHEREAS, the City has and continues on a daily basis to monitor all operations at the Airport for its residents and respond to concerns expressed by residents about noise; curfews; departure procedures and generally where planes fly; WHEREAS, traditionally the major air carriers' Conventional Standard Instrument Departure (SID) procedures out of JWA had allowed for a wider disbursement of departures over larger parts of the community versus narrow, repeated departures over a smaller focused area; WHEREAS, in 2009, the Federal Aviation Administration ("FAA") began adjustments to the departure procedures, including the implementation of "Area Navigation" ("RNAV") SIDs, which involves a more precise and repeatable path driven more by technology in the cockpit and satellite -based navigation than a Conventional SID; WHEREAS, during 2009 and 2010, the City of Newport Beach (City), responding to concerns of the community, worked closely with the County and then with the FAA to correct errors in JWA's first RNAV SID (known as the DUUKE, then DUUKE 2, then STREL) as the DUUKE 1 and DUUKE 2 both took aircraft further east) impacting the Bluffs, Eastbluff, and Corona del Mar) than the traditional departures from JWA; WHEREAS, after the DUUKE discussions, the City recognized it had a continuing substantial interest in ensuring aircraft operations at JWA do not significantly affect its residents and recognizing problems with RNAV and how it would affect our community. In 2012 the City hired GE/Naverus to conduct a feasibility study to determine if a "Required Navigation Performance" or RNP Departure — also referred to by City staff as the Upper Bay's "Two Turn" departure — would work at JWA in an attempt to create a departure path that would navigate successfully down the middle of the Upper Newport Bay; WHEREAS, GE/Naverus concluded that an RNP for JWA was feasible. The City communicated this data to the FAA in April 2013; WHEREAS, the FAA responded to the City in June 2013 stating that the FAA "may be able to advise further (on the City's RNP request) sometime in mid-to-late 2014," following an assessment of a similar RNP proposal for Hartsfield -Jackson Atlanta International Airport; WHEREAS, in late 2013, the City, County and the Aviation Committee became aware of the FAA's intent to apply more RNAV SIDS across many if not all major airports in the nation, calling this effort "NextGen"; Resolution No. 2017-63 Page 3 of 6 WHEREAS, the Committee and Council were briefed on the possible impacts of NextGen starting in October 2013; WHEREAS, at the time, City Council members, Committee members, City staff, residents, and others noted that NextGen's overall goal — to improve safety — was laudable, but the consequences of repeated departures down specific pathways over Newport Beach would be deleterious to the community overall and not in the spirit of past actions which fanned flights across a wider region. Moreover, the City recognized that minor changes that might seem insignificant to the FAA in the development of NextGen would result in noticeable changes to residents of Newport Beach; WHEREAS, in January 2014, the FAA sent out an "Early Notification Letter" ("Letter") setting forth a Draft Environmental Assessment ("Draft EX) for the Southern California Metroplex Project, which kicked off NextGen in the Southern California region including JWA and up to 21 airports; WHEREAS, the City responded to the Letter in February 2014 expressing the City's concern about the Draft EA and how adequately the Draft EA would address noise, air quality, and cumulative impacts among other things; WHEREAS, the FAA later created the Draft EA, and the City formally responded to it on September 4, 2015 via a 58 -page letter. This letter included the HMMH Report, which provided an even more detailed analysis of the Draft EA. The City's document was one of the most comprehensive legal and technical analysis and critique of any NextGen Draft EA submitted in the United States; WHEREAS, the FAA's Draft EA proposed three new RNAV SIDS for JWA, including the PIGGN (representing about half of all JWA departures), the HHERO (then called the HAYLO, representing more than 40% of all departures) and the FINZZ (representing less than 10%); WHEREAS, the City's correspondence towards the Draft EA noted, among other things, that the Draft EA was vague, lacked quantifiable information about increases in noise, removed the TOING waypoint at Noise Monitoring Station #7 (NMS #7), did not address the use of Noise Abatement Departure Procedures (NADPs) from JWA, failed to properly recognize the JWA Settlement Agreement, that the FAA did not adequately include the community in the departure discussions, and that it failed to recognize that seemingly insignificant modifications in the departure paths from the Airport resulted in a noticeable increase in noise for residents nor did it "take a hard look at the potentially significant air quality and greenhouse gas ("GHG") emissions" of NextGen at JWA (among other things); WHEREAS, included in the City's Draft EA comments is the concept that the JWA Settlement Agreement reflects community consensus on the nature and extent of facility and operational improvements that may be implemented at JWA. For more than 30 years, this Agreement has balanced airport operational capacity with the legitimate environmental concerns of the surrounding communities; WHEREAS, the FAA failed to issue a timely response to the City's letter, and the Final EA did not address the City's concerns; Resolution No. 2017-63 Page 4 of 6 WHEREAS, shortly after the FAA released the Final EA, the City Council authorized the filing of a legal action against the FAA based, in part, on the FAA's failure to address the City's concerns in the Final EA; WHEREAS, the City was laterjoined by the County, who intervened in the lawsuit, and the City of Laguna Beach, which filed its own lawsuit related to the Final EA; WHEREAS, the FAA began implementation of the three new RNAV SIDS at JWA starting on March 2, 2017 (PIGGN), and later following on April 27, 2017 (HHERO and FINZZ); WHEREAS, at the time, the City observed that flights from all three RNAV SIDs tended to be eastward of the former STREL departure, moving easterly of NMS #7; WHEREAS, on May 25 2017, the FAA modified PIGGN slightly, resulting in a movement of PIGGN to the west of the Upper Newport Bay; WHEREAS, in spring and summer 2017, residents in Newport Beach communities like Eastbluff, the Bluffs, One Ford Road, Westcliff, Dover Shores, Balboa Island, the Balboa Peninsula, Irvine Terrace, Harbor Cove, Villa Point, and other areas began to express significant concerns from aircraft noise and overflights to the City, the County, and the FAA about the PIGGN, HHERO, and FINZZ; WHEREAS, at the same time, City and County staff were observing the departure paths and noting to the FAA that NMS #7 was not being flown over, nor were flights navigating down the middle of "the Narrows" of the Upper Bay near NMS #6; WHEREAS, during summer 2017, the FAA printed and made publicly available the "STAYY" RNP departure procedure, which takes two turns within the confines of the Upper Newport Bay to avoid residential areas both to the east and west and is similar to the initial concepts that the City presented to the FAA with GE/Naverus in April 2013 and again in March 2016; WHEREAS, during summer 2017, Newport Beach residents began a Petition on "iPetition" to the FAA, City, and County entitled, "Too Loud & Too Low: Stop JWA Noise Now", which raised substantial issues about the adequacy of the Final EA prepared by the FAA in order to implement the Metroplex Project. As of the date of this resolution, the petition has over 1,100 signatures; WHEREAS, the Petition's criticisms are shared by the City and specifically addressed in the current pending federal litigation with the FAA. NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Newport Beach that the City believes and affirms that: Section 1. The City shall, to the fullest extent of the law, continue to maintain as a primary objective the goal of protecting its residents from the impacts of commercial operations at John Wayne Airport. Section 2. The City shall continue to work to ensure that aircraft operations at JWA do not significantly affect residents and that any changes in aircraft operations at JWA are consistent with protections provided for in the JWA Settlement Agreement as amended. Resolution No. 2017-63 Page 5 of 6 Section 3. The City shall continue to take the necessary actions to protect residents from the inadequacies of the Draft Environmental Assessment created for the purpose of implementing the Metroplex Project, as demonstrated by the City's October 2016 legal action. Section 4. The City shall continue to take the necessary action, as demonstrated by the City's litigation, so that changes implemented by the Metroplex Project or any subsequent project will not require changes in noise abatement departure procedures that could jeopardize or preclude the ability of the air carriers and the general aviation community from utilizing those procedures and complying with the noise limits, as reflected in, among other documents, the 1985 Settlement Agreement, as amended. Section 5. The City shall continue to pursue modifying and/or perfecting the current FINZZ, HHERO and PIGGN departures or subsequently introduced departure procedures to ensure to the greatest extent possible that southerly departures from JWA fly down open water in the middle of the Upper Newport Bay and so that any proposed and/or initiated change in departure procedures do not result in a noticeable increase in noise for residential areas located along the Upper Newport Bay. Section 6. The City shall continue to interface with the County and the FAA on efforts similar to the currently proposed STAYY departure procedure, introduced by the FAA in the summer of 2017 which as a result of environmental analysis and community outreach, determined a public need for a modernized departure procedure. Section 7. The City shall embark on an update to the 2008 ARTS Study (JWA/OC Airport — Departure Noise Impact Analysis) in cooperation with the Aviation Committee, the County and resident groups to further understand noise changes following Metroplex. Section 8. The City encourages all air carriers and pilots who can reach a higher altitude and use the appropriate Noise Abatement Departure Procedures in a safe manner should do so immediately. Section 9. The City states its support for legislation by US Representative Dana Rohrabacher's and others that would attempt to maximize altitude as well as the FAA's prioritization of community concerns above air carrier efficiency. Section 10. The City will encourage and facilitate the transmittal of resident and City concerns about Metroplex directly to the FAA, given how complex it can be for residents alone to communicate with the FAA's Metroplex staff. Section 11. The City appreciates the County of Orange's participation and effort in addressing issues with noise and NextGen to ensure that JWA remains a good neighbor to our community, and to protect our overall quality of life. Section 12: The recitals provided in this resolution are true and correct and are incorporated into the operative part of this resolution. Resolution No. 2017-63 Page 6 of 6 Section 13: If any section, subsection, sentence, clause or phrase of this resolution is, for any reason, held to be invalid or unconstitutional, such decision shall not affect the validity or constitutionality of the remaining portions of this resolution. The City Council hereby declares that it would have passed this resolution, and each section, subsection, sentence, clause or phrase hereof, irrespective of the fact that any one or more sections, subsections, sentences, clauses or phrases be declared invalid or unconstitutional. Section 14: The City Council finds the adoption of this resolution 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. Section 15: This resolution shall take effect immediately upon its adoption by the City Council, and the City Clerk shall certify the vote adopting the resolution. A' ADOPTED this 26th day of September 2017. r-1 I Leilani I. Brown City Clerk RNt APPROVED AS TO FORM: CITY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE �i--- Aaron C. Harp City Attorney rnevin iwuiaoory Mayor 7 STATE OF CALIFORNIA } COUNTY OF ORANGE } ss. CITY OF NEWPORT BEACH 1 I, Leilani I. Brown, City Clerk of the City of Newport Beach, California, do hereby certify that the whole number of members of the City Council is seven; the foregoing resolution, being Resolution No. 2017-63 was duly introduced before and adopted by the City Council of said City at a regular meeting of said Council held on the 261h day of September, 2017; and the same was so passed and adopted by the following vote, to wit: AYES: Council Member Brad Avery, Council Member Diane Dixon, Council Member Scott Peotter, Council Member Will O'Neill, Mayor Pro Tem Duffy Duffield, Mayor Kevin Muldoon NAYS: None ABSENT: Council Member Jeff Herdman IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto subscribed my name and affixed the official seal of said City this 271h day of September, 2017. Aolr�-- Leilani I. Brown City Clerk Newport Beach, California