Group opposes flight path change

UPDATE 11/21/2016 5:45 PM: Outgoing Representative Sam Farr calls it one of the hottest issues of his congressional career – the flight path change over Monterey Bay and the Santa Cruz Mountains. Plans to once again change the flight path are moving forward, but not everyone supports it.

Last year, the Federal Aviation Administration created NextGen, which was supposed to tweak flight paths to save fuel and create less noise. It did the opposite in the Santa Cruz Mountains, not just from the planes above but the folks living below the new path, called SERFR.

“It caused a problem that nobody ever imagined and probably had the most number of complaints the FAA has ever had on noise coming out of the Santa Cruz Mountains,” Farr said.

That’s when he and the congressional representatives from San Mateo and Santa Clara formed a committee made up of local elected officials from the communities affected. The committee decided to move forward with going back to something similar to the old plan, called Big Sur.

“The old path coming in, called Big Sur, didn’t have complaints and so after voting on it, they decided to go back to that,” Farr said. “I think it’s actually a great example of how you can petition your government and get some positive results.”

But not everyone appears to be on board. A recently created Facebook page called “Quiet Skies Monterey Peninsula” is asking the FAA to stop the Big Sur route, saying it’s just moving the noise from one community to the next. This group has also created a change.org petition for its cause.

KION reached out to Quiet Skies Monterey Peninsula but haven’t heard back.

“Now a lot of people are worried if they go back, ‘How is that going to affect me? But the FAA hasn’t worked it out yet. It’s going to take several years to implement. There could be a lot of tweaks to it,” Farr said.

Residents were undecided.

“I would feel a little skeptical about it if my home was in the path,” Denise Jake said. “Honestly. Because that’s definitely a wait and see and it would be too late.”

ORIGINAL POST: For many years, planes landing at San Francisco International Airport took the Big Sur flight path. The FAA changed it more than a year ago to the SERFR path.

the flight path taken by planes flying to San Francisco went over Big Sur. A little over a year ago, it was moved, and planes now fly over the Santa Cruz mountains and South Bay.

Residents living under the new flight plan didn’t like it, and after numerous complaints about noise, the flight plan appears headed back toward Big Sur.

One group opposes the return. Quiet Skies Peninsula opposes the plan, saying it simply moves noise from one spot to the next.

KION’s Mariana Hicks spoke with Rep. Sam Farr (D-Carmel Valley) who called it one of the hottest issues of his term in Congress.

Tonight, KION’s Mariana Hicks looks at where the plan stands and where it may be headed.