Thanks jiggy. (I’m afraid to ask how you got that name.)
I almost feel honored to be part of a blog where people can post without the personal attacks or mindless opinions that one sees on most other websites.
The issues of airport noise and airport safety are here and they’re not going away. They will become more important over time. They are not restricted to San Diego County. There have been contentious battles from Santa Monica to Teterboro.
To fully illustrate the stupidity of regulation consider Montgomery Field. Montgomery Field has a noise abatement ordinance with fairly stiff penalties for late night operations. This ordinance was, as I understand it, developed to placate homeowners who foolishly bought homes in the early 1960’s built right under the departure path.
Forget that Montgomery had been a busy airport since at least the 1940’s. Forget that the San Diego City zoning department was warned to never allow housing in that area. (You must purposely forget a lot if you want to discuss development around airports!)
The noise regulations do NOTHING to mitigate the danger of aircraft operations at Montgomery other than to push operations from late night to daytime or evening-time. They are there to placate the homeowners who knowingly purchased homes under a noisy (and dangerous) departure path. In many people’s opinion, homes that should never have been approved for construction.
About 15 years ago, construction of the mall across the west side of 163 was allowed — again against the advice of most everyone associated with Montgomery. But the developers won. Go figure.
The only bright spot was the recent mandatory removal of the illegal upper two stories from the development just north of Montgomery. I was truly amazed that the City had the cajones to force the issue. Of course, the multistory building itself still poses some hazard, but developers have to wring maximal profit out of the land and ignore “acceptable” danger — don’t they?
I make the sad prediction that an aircraft will have engine failure after take-off from the main runway at Montgomery and crash into the mall. Not if, only when. You know that In and Out Burger? It’s directly in line with the main runway departure path. One day the drive-in window will be a fly-in window.
Montgomery has been made an inherently unsafe airport by allowing this adjacent development. Useless “noise abatement” programs only give the illusion of safety. Montgomery perfectly illustrates how the public’s perception of safety is completely divorced from actual safety.
Don’t even get me started on Lindbergh.
Why am I posting? I don’t even know. Venting I guess. Mainly against the psychotic zoning approval in San Diego County which knowingly allows the design and construction of unsafe development.
