City Government

Airport Noise Plan Calls For Home Buys

f-15Boise airport officials in a press release have claimed support from the Federal Aviation Administration for a recently approved noise plan at the facility. The FAA RECORD is full of acronyms and references.

Long time opponent of noisy F-15 and F-35 fighters being based in Boise, Monty Mericle offered up the following report based on the FAA record and subsequent Boise Airport PRESS RELEASE. Mericle paints a picture of residences being purchased for a total amount well in excess of $100 MILLION!

By MONTY MERICLE

The FAA already approved (in June) the Boise Airport Part 150 Study noise models that their consultant created. All those models assume that the A-10s will be scrapped as soon as the Air Force can get rid of them. That has already started and they will be gone before 2020. The only replacement options being pursued, and therefore modeled by the Boise Airport and their consultant are either a squadron of F-15s in the near term (2020), or a squadron of F-35s as soon as the Air Force can get them here (2023).

This just announced final FAA approval phase is for the submitted noise mitigation options. Of the 13 options put forward by the Boise Airport, 7 were approved and 6 were disapproved. The only approved option with any real impact is mitigation #7, buying and demolishing 105 houses in the “Not Suitable For Residential Use” zone at the end of Roosevelt, south of Pasadena. At $230,000 per home, this could cost up to $25,000,000.

But the FAA-approved Part 150 Study also assumes a squadron of F-15s will be here by 2020, and that will force the reclassification of 419 homes as NSFRU. It is reasonable to assume those homes will also be bought and demolished, at a cost of $96,000,000.

And if the F-35s arrive by 2023 with twice the loudness as the F-15s, the number of NSFRU homes is pushed to over 1,200. All this for 18 to 24 warplanes? This is madness.

I find it ironic that just as the FAA has approved this plan, the Alberstons Open Golf Tournament is about to start at Hillcrest Golf Couse. Does anyone know or care that F-35s flying out of the Boise Airport will produce sound levels at the Hillcrest clubhouse above the ear pain threshold, and that exposure to that level of sound for more than 8 seconds will cause permanent hearing damage (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health)? But maybe the Airport and Air Force will avoid flying during the golf tournaments to avoid inconveniencing any golfers, and save their noise for the residents and school children who will be living in the NSFRU zone for years to come.

Comments & Discussion

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  1. Bieter must go!
    Sep 13, 2016, 9:38 pm

    Bieter must go!

  2. Monty Mericle is obviously a Commie-loving Pinko!! God bless our super-noisy jets!

    (TOTAL sarcasm! Sorry – I’m just trollin’ today.)

    We live at the fringes of the noise zone. It’s easy to tell when MHAFB jets are taking off from Boise.

    If I were in charge, the A-10s would remain in the fleet. They are comparatively quiet, and comparatively SUPER-cheap to buy and operate (by an exponential factor). And they are still the go-to air-to-ground platform for current and foreseeable combat situations.

    (Of course, they aren’t nearly as glamorous and “Star Wars” as those swoopy, titanium, mach II afterburner noise machines that cost $250 million each… and glamour and defense contracts still mean something in this country, too.)

  3. So the Airport’s mitigation plan is essentially demolishing Boise, and more of it, so the rest of us can hear the roar of F-35s till the useless planes get decommissioned.
    Can we just scrap the planes right now?

    Boise would be a real nice place to live if not for politicians, lawyers and real estate speculators. Most notorious of our leaders are all that in one person.

    In case of the airport, it seems they are trying to sell the land around it to more than one user.

    I think if Lockheed Martin wants to place F-35s in Boise, they should buy 3 miles around the airport, its future contours, after 3rd runway is extended and F-35 get brought in.

  4. AbolishGovernment
    Sep 14, 2016, 2:37 pm

    Even simple minded folks are starting to wake up to the fact that our government now controls us, instead of us controlling it. We are not a Democracy, or a Representative Republic, but an Oligarchy where the rich rule America for their personal benefit. Time to bring back the guillotines.
    We need to abolish the Federal Government, turn the states into countries, and make giving money to politicians a capital offense. That would be a nice start…

  5. Bieter must go!
    Sep 14, 2016, 11:00 pm

    I suspect Bieter and friends are motivated by the money they can make as middlemen. Anything that causes buckets of federal money to be spent in Boise is good for the local middlemen.

    There is a very good article about why Angela Marcel basically single handedly caused the worst European social crisis since WWII… and she still continues to make it worse. The article basically says these leaders who are in office for too long, become insulated aloof elitists who no longer identify with the commoner. Nor do they care about the commoner. The commoner will have to pay taxes no matter what, so no need to care about them. An oligarchy forms due to robotic brand loyalty voting and very small turnouts. These leaders then do what’s best for themselves and their closest political/business partners.

    I believe Bieter sees the entirety of the Bench as Boise’s riffraff zone. The old power and money inhabiting the Bench river bluff has died off. There is no one left on the bench who can stop him. Dozing it and redeveloping new stuff paid for with Obama money allows him to rebuild it in his personal vision/preference as well as make loads of money for himself and friends. Change forced by a noisy military airplane is a godsend to these greedy elitists.

    The F35, The train, the stadium, CWI campus, etc etc. All unneeded and hugely unprofitable public money projects designed to milk the cow for the middlemen.

    I once by happenstance was leaving a building as the mayor and his entourage was entering. I politely and appropriately said “hello Mayor Bieter” in passing without breaking stride. It was no different from typical polite greeting of anyone we might pass closely to. Typically a polite greeting reduces stranger tension when we must pass through doorways or ride planes with strangers. I was not startling or threatening in anyway, but he and his people looked startled. I felt as though I had done something wrong, thus it was apparent to me the elitism has set in.

  6. Inna… useless….lol… I will agree the 35 and 22 are not much compared to a 15 (I’m biased as hell… so be it).. but useless… wow.. here is a simple solution… move the airport half way to Mtn Home or even better put it adjacent to the base at Mtn Home…oh wait the precious citizens of Boise need the convenience of having a “quiet” airport in their back yard…

  7. Rick.
    Boise is a City, and to a city its citizens are (supposed to be) precious.
    But, I heard F-35 are quite expensive too.

  8. A time to stay, a time to leave
    Sep 15, 2016, 7:43 pm

    When the elected lose touch with the populous, despite election success, it is time for the elected to move on. They must self select this.

    Hausrath left with this is mind – that she was losing touch with the electorate. (authors interpretation – quotes are in the media.)

    This is an undeniable signal for homeowners in the airport area to sell.

    Ludicrous that there is an U.S. Airforce base 35 miles away that is not taking responsibility for these aircraft.

  9. What is ludicrous is that you think it is up to Mtn Home… Maybe they should expand Mtn Home move the A10’s and the rest of the guard, both army and AF down there. I am sure the town could use the influx of money that would result from all those full time guard boys selling their houses in BOI and moving. While were at it why don’t they move the VA hosp. down there too. That would rid BOI of all those pesky military folk.

  10. Perhaps the game plan is to demolish parts of Boise as noise mitigation, then later to move F-35s to Mountain Home, or replace with some quieter aircraft.
    And open up some land to re-development by Boise’s nuveau-riche.

  11. Boise doesn’t have a Nouveau riche. We have Loma Prieta transplants…

  12. I find it interesting to compare the uproar over a single engined Cessna in the foothills and overall, comparative, lack of concern for something that impacts ALL of Boise.

  13. AbolishGovernment
    Sep 17, 2016, 1:19 pm

    Inna – Interesting conspiracy theory, and possibly true.
    (In a time of universal deciept, conspiracy theories are all we have)
    Another might be that they are demolishing all the houses close to the National Gaurd base to create a more defensible buffer for the time when our corporate government goes full Totalitarian on us.

  14. Yossarian_22
    Sep 19, 2016, 3:06 pm

    This is not over yet. There will be plenty of debate about this to come. I know that District 17 reps are all against more noise, for the most part. We need to build a larger coalition.

  15. Bieter must go!
    Sep 19, 2016, 5:12 pm

    Perhaps we can get the local refugee population to complain about having Taliban killers based in Boise? Bieter will listen to them.

  16. Does anyone know if the homeowners in the dispensible area know about this? I walk my dog there frequently, and I see people working hard to maintain home values and quality of life. I’d hate to try to sell one of those homes now, with this approval out.

  17. Yes, we know. It is frustrating to discuss it. Complaints and questions to city leaders fall on deaf ears. Some people unaffected by the threat of losing their homes call us whiners and suggest we are unpatriotic. It is a wait and see situation. And, of course, anyone trying to sell must disclose the possibility of being forced out.

  18. Once you sold the home to the FAA for noise mitigation, you could special order and sell T-shirts that say:
    “PATRIOT : I sold my house to the FAA!”

  19. Inna – good idea!

  20. I remember way back when there was sonic booms everyday and do not remember people complaining and those houses out by the airport were there. People want quiet don’t move there.

    EDITOR NOTE–Laree, with lightning strikes and fires in the foothills do you also argue
    if people don’t want there homes to burn, they shouldn’t build there and the city shouldn’t allow development? Heck, Boise officials opposed a single Piper Cub runway on private land
    AND the fire chief at a public hearing vowed to NOT RESPOND if there was an emergency or fire.

  21. Laree- I am not complaining about the noise. I am complaining about being forced out of my home. There is a huge differnce between the two.

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