Noisy neighbor more like a friend today

Despite violation of voluntary curfew, expansion, people embrace economic benefits of airport

By John Howell
Posted 4/19/16

Once labeled the noisy and uncaring neighbor, Green Airport has become the hope for economic development and a better future – even for those living near it.

That’s not to say there are no …

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Noisy neighbor more like a friend today

Despite violation of voluntary curfew, expansion, people embrace economic benefits of airport

Posted

Once labeled the noisy and uncaring neighbor, Green Airport has become the hope for economic development and a better future – even for those living near it.

That’s not to say there are no complaints or that the airport can do no wrong.

Frustration with the airport and the land it has taken off the tax rolls surfaced last week as the City Council abandoned a portion of Hallene Road near the geodesic dome off Airport Road for a regional facility for Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

While the council embraced the opportunity to have the site – a combination of airport and privately owned land – generate tax revenue, the numbers of homes and businesses taken by airport expansion remains a sore point. The airport has acquired a total of 540 properties since 1980. There are additional homes – approximately 53 – potentially eligible under airport programs to be offered acquisition between now and December 2017.

Ward 4 Councilman Joseph Solomon, who was especially critical that land has been taken off the tax rolls, summed up the reaction of his colleagues, saying, “a lot of us are venting our frustrations.” In the end Solomon, voted for the street abandonment, allowing for the development.

The airport is frequently viewed as the culprit. Turn back the clock to last summer when extension of a runway protection zone and fertilizing of playing fields at Winslow Park were immediately blamed for a green algae bloom in Warwick Pond. There was no conclusive evidence that the airport was the responsible.

That can’t be said for early morning or late-night flights, which are now on the schedule. Five departures are on the current schedule before 6 a.m., and two arrivals after midnight. That’s the airport.

Yet even though flights are taking off and landing inside the voluntary midnight to 6 a.m. curfew, there isn’t the outcry over airport noise that there was 10 and 15 years ago. In those days, airport bashing – whether on talk radio or in Council Chambers – was commonplace. That was also a period when RIAC was looking at options for growth and airport neighbors, whether residents or businesses, didn’t know if they were in the path of construction. The cry was to relocate the airport to Quonset; fine or in some other means penalize airlines that habitually ignored the curfew; and by all means have the airport pay Warwick for its aggravation. The mayor even sent a tax bill to the Rhode Island Airport Corporation. It wasn’t paid.

An informal survey of homeowners north of the airport and within the glide path of the runway Sunday afternoon found consensus that there are higher levels of noise because of the removal of homes and trees closer to the airport.

“They keep knocking down the homes,” said Erin Smith of Bellevue Avenue, who had her lawn mower out. In addition to increased levels of noise, she said her water “turns orange” whenever houses are taken down. She is also fed up with the “black soot” left by planes.

Nearby, Lisa Calise, a 12-year resident of Astral Street, said she hasn’t bothered about complaining because she’s already been told her home is outside the high noise contour for voluntary acquisition. A major complaint is the MD 80 aircraft used by Delta that “rattle this house.”

Calise is uncertain of what she’ll do.

“If I sell the house I wouldn’t get anything, or do I stick it out and stay,” she said.

Joseph Fernandes, who moved to his house on Commodore Avenue 10 months ago, isn’t bothered by the early-morning flights.

“I’m up and out by then,” he said as his daughter Katierose did cartwheels in the rich green grass of his front lawn. Fernandes thought the house could be better insulated to reduce the noise, but generally he’s not too bothered by the airport.

“I enjoy seeing them,” he said of the planes.

He’s not the only one.

Improved relationship

City and airport officials talk of a good relationship. Mayor Scott Avedisian has been actively involved in efforts to bring additional service to Green and is among the cheerleaders with the announcement of additional service, which means more flights and correspondingly more noise.

“The attitude toward the airport has evolved,” he said in an interview. He said that 15 years ago the city didn’t see “the economic spin-off you have today.”

Overall, he said the relationship between the city and RIAC has “vastly improved.” He credits former RIAC board chair Kathleen Hittner with building trust and mutual respect with the city.

“You can’t dislike someone you know,” he said. In particular, he said, Hittner did not disregard the city right off the bat. Rather, he said, she fostered an effort to work together even though they recognized they could not always agree. He credited former president and CEO Kelly Fredericks with similarly building community relationships and communication.

Last Wednesday, the RIAC board took another step toward improving city relations when it approved a one-year option to sell the former Atwood Grille property on Post Road to The Procaccianti Group, which owns the Comfort Inn. Whether the company exercises the $1.6-million agreement, it is required to demolish for former restaurant. Sale of the site would return the land to the city tax rolls.

Peter Frazier, RIAC’s interim president and CEO, said the agency is “committed to put properties back on the tax rolls.” He said land along Main Avenue that is being relocated to adjust for the longer runway is a priority. If the land is leased or sold, he notes, proceeds go back to the FAA.

“If it abuts the airport we’re going to look long and hard before selling,” he said.

Impact on development

Nonetheless, there’s no escaping a love-hate relationship between the airport and the city. The airport has been responsible for the development of more hotel rooms in Warwick than any other Rhode Island community, resulting in the spin-off of other businesses and jobs. It is integral to the 111-acre Intermodal zone that makes up Warwick City Centre, which with its nexus of transportation modes is viewed as the future downtown Warwick with a mixed use of offices, residential, and commercial.

No question, the airport is an important consideration in the proposed $48-million Crowne Plaza development that is based on “medical tourism” and a facility where out-of-state residents would travel to Warwick for outpatient specialized medical procedures.

But the airport comes with liabilities. In addition to noise and air pollution caused by aircraft, the airport needs a lot of space – more than 1,200 acres – and it is needs more with the lengthening of the main runway.

Frazier summarizes the situation this way: “The airport is an industrial complex shoehorned into a residential area.”

Complaints have diminished

At the height of airport operations in 2005, there were 111 flights departing daily from Green. Today, there are 55. Also, in 2005, when total passenger traffic at Green exceeded 5 million, RIAC received 1,055 complaints on its hotline from 376 callers about noise and airport activity. Last year, it received 151 complaints from 44 callers.

Semi-annual meetings mandated by state law, where noise-monitoring data is made public, rarely draw a single person. That data is now available on the RIAC website.

“It’s obsolete,” Patti Goldstein, senior vice president of marketing and communications, says. “Now you can get all that information online.”

There are some good reasons why there isn’t so much noise about aircraft noise.

Dan Porter, RIAC’s vice president of planning and environment, points out that with few exceptions the aircraft using Green are quieter, Stage 3 airplanes. There are fewer “hush kit” Stage 2 aircraft that are actually nosier than Stage 3. The loudest plane in and out of Green these days is a MD80 in the Delta fleet, he said.

RIAC has also spent a lot of money soundproofing homes as well as buying those properties within the high-noise contours. Under the ongoing program started in 2012, 578 housing units – a figure that includes multi-unit developments – will be sound insulated at a cost of $32 million. A total of 114 units have been soundproofed to date.

Since the program was started in the late 1980s, Porter estimates 1,500 housing units have been sound insulated at a cost of $45 million. In addition to homes, RIAC also replaced windows at several schools.

Porter said the Federal Aviation Administration would update noise contours in 2018 once the longer runway is in operation.

“Just because it is bigger [runway longer] doesn’t mean it is going to be nosier,” Porter said.

Naturally, if RIAC and the state are successful in bringing added service to Green, it will result in more noise. Likewise, with extension of the runway, there will be a greater impact on residents south of the airport including the neighborhoods of Arnold’s Neck, Nausauket, Cowesett, and Chepiwanoxet. East Greenwich will also be affected.

And while that will generate complaints, it would seem the days when the uncertainty of airport development – when residents didn’t know if the airport would look to buy their home, or leave them stuck – are over for the time being.

Comments

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  • Justanidiot

    The time has come to close down the airport, abate the major pollution problems there, and turn the land into green space. Then we can work on getting rid of the malls, the big box stores, and all the other eyesores that make Warwick a horrible place.

    Tuesday, April 19, 2016 Report this

  • dickcoutu

    I'm glad I'm the h*&l out of there! I see the new aligned Main Ave. will run directly through my old home at 40 Gertrude Ave. which used to be across from the old Winslow Park field 5.

    For the life of me, I still cannot understand why they're still using the same name, Winslow Park, at the new ball fields at 300 Airport Rd.

    Thursday, April 21, 2016 Report this

  • markyc

    The airport expansion has been a time consuming process that has occurred over several decades. Most of the homes that were originally intended to be acquired have been. Others have either moved or had noise abatement measures taken. Back in the 1980s the fear was that the expansion planned at that time would require the relocation of Airport Road itself as well as Airport Plaza, possibly Confreda Farms property plus many other local businesses. Those that weren't planned to be acquired would be affected. Because of a combination of factors the effects of Airport expansion that was planned back then have been somewhat mitigated. 1) A partial expansion occurred during the Sundlun Administration with the terminal & adjacent properties improved &/or acquired. in addition, other businesses & additional property was gradually acquired by RIAC; the community through no choice of their own had to accept these changes. 2) Through technology advances/improvements the larger planes of the 1980s weren't required to provide the West Coast travel flights that RIAC wanted/required at that time. RIAC was able to propose a scaled back expansion plan to basically obtain their long term plans-the newer runway safety measures could be used to allow for expansion on a smaller scale & achieve the same results. 3) In 2005, Green was a bigger player in the Airport system- it's unlikely they will reach 5,000, 000 passengers in the foreseeable future. Green's expansion is geared for a combination of commercial(cargo such as UPS & Fed EX) & passenger increases. Airports today are much more competitive. 4) The City billing RIAC? That's laughable-don't waste your time; RIAC is a quasi-State agency with FAA backing-the City would likely get nowhere.4) As far as the Intermodal/City Centre project, it will likely all come down to whether or not the State/City can convince Amtrak to make regular stops here; that would be the prime target-CONCENTRATE on that-the MBTA might also be a needed partner.5) The airport was built in a place, that, at the time, was not as populated with a high residential base & Quonset was federal land; the decision was made to make Green the State's central airport; in the late 1970s/1980s an option may have existed for Quonset to be that airport, but now that option has passed. Whether Warwick likes it or not, "it is what it is".

    Thursday, April 21, 2016 Report this