City Responds to Report Blasting SFO Noise Monitoring

The San Mateo County grand jury recently released a report calling for broader noise monitoring at San Francisco International Airport and better response to county residents concerned with aircraft noise.

Patch previously reported that the grand jury examined whether the SFO Roundtable, a regional committee tasked with monitoring noise, is “operating effectively to ensure that San Mateo County residents are not unduly impacted by aircraft noise.”

SFO’s carriers have increased air traffic to the chagrin of residents who live under their flight path, the report said.

“Changes in departure patterns over Brisbane have generated strong protests from residents who assert that their quality of life is being adversely impacted,” the report said. “Increased night flights over San Bruno, South San Francisco and Daly City are also of major concern to those communities, especially when the flights depart directly over residential areas that did not participate or were not eligible for the noise insulation program.”

To mitigate the issue, the grand jury recommended that the roundtable take a more active role in addressing the increasing impacts of SFO’s expansion. The grand jury also urged San Bruno and the other surrounding cities to involve more residents in the decision-making process when it comes to addressing issues from the airport.

San Bruno responded to the grand jury report earlier this month and agreed with some of the findings, but argued that many of the grand jury’s recommendations were already being implemented by the city.

Some of the report’s findings included that:

• The chair and vice-chair of the roundtable are required to be elected officials from the cities that are represented, but the current chair isn't an elected official.
• Attendance at the roundtable has begun to decline overall, and Daly City’s recent withdrawal from the board and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ lack of attendance since February 2009 are concerning.
• Public participation at SFO Roundtable meetings has been minimal.

San Bruno officials agreed with the grand jury’s suggestion that the leaders of the roundtable should be elected officials from the representative cities. However, the city said its representative, who wasn't named in a staff report, has actively participated in decisions and San Bruno residents are, indeed, involved in the process.

“San Bruno citizens, like those of other communities, are represented on the Roundtable by their appointed or elected members, in the same way a city council operates," Mayor Jim Ruane wrote in a response this month to the grand jury report.

Zach Stahl contributed to this story.