Hermosa Beach urges residents to report noise from airplanes overhead
Hermosa Beach City Hall. File photo
The noise in Andrea Valcourt’s east Hermosa home started with a few planes around 10 p.m. It gradually got worse, and at one point, she said, planes were flying overhead every 15 minutes. The noise penetrated her doors
“Sometimes it sounds like planes are coming right into the bedroom or the living room, which is quite disturbing,” Valcourt told the City Council last month.
A marked increase in airplanes departing Los Angeles International Airport and flying over Hermosa Beach over the past few months prompted a spike in noise complaints. As a result, officials say, they are engaged in ongoing discussions with the federal regulators and local airport officials, and are urging residents to document instances of noisy flight paths.
The position of LAX amidst the urban sprawl of the South Bay has long created issues for residents under flight paths. Once known as “Surfridge,” the southern section of Playa del Rey was condemned by the 1970s to make way for westward flight paths. And today “Airport Square,” a Los Angeles neighborhood south of Arbor Vitae Street and west of the San Diego (405) Freeway, is mostly, though not entirely, empty, with many residents having taken buyouts from the airport due to noise.
Because the majority of flights departing LAX take over the ocean to the west, the Beach Cities have historically been less impacted by noise. But recent construction on runways and some severe weather has caused that to change.
Like many airports around the country, LAX is currently in the midst of a federally mandated retrofit of its runways, according to a statement from Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), the entity that oversees LAX. All four runways were updated, with construction on the final runway beginning in October 2016 and expected to be completed by June. (Manhattan Beach and El Segundo were among the cities that the airport said could be affected by alternate flight paths necessary during construction, although Hermosa was not.)
According to Nico De Anda-Scaia, assistant to the City Manager, the closure of certain runways is compressing the amount of time available to land, meaning a greater number of planes are passing overhead at night than normal, compounding the nuisance to residents.
Weather patterns are also playing a role. Although somewhat counterintuitive, tailwinds — winds travelling the same direction as the aircraft — actually make taking off more difficult, requiring more runway length to obtain enough lift for a plane to fly. According to De Scaia, recent bouts of easterly wind have meant that some planes are too heavy to lift off when heading toward the ocean, and have switched directions to the easier takeoff into the wind.
When interim City Manager John Jalili presented the issue to the council last month, he said that the problem was getting worse. Planes taking off later at night and flying at lower elevations meant that the city had to be prepared to take action, including exploring litigation.
That now appears less likely. Although the city received a cluster of complaints last month, fewer have been received recently, De Anda Scaia said.
Discussions with the Federal Aviation Administration and LAWA are ongoing. The airport has previously sought to further limit night-time, easterly takeoffs by airlines, but did not obtain approval from federal regulators.
In the interim, the city is urging residents to document incidents of planes flying overhead, which they say will aid in discussions. Links on the city’s website enable residents to fill out complaint forms, monitor air traffic and call an airport complaint hotline.