MAC Nixes Flight Pattern Shifts for Edina Skies

Edina skies are safe for the time being, after the Metropolitan Airports Commission opted to nix a major shift in flight patterns over select swaths of the city.

City officials turned out for the Monday afternoon meeting, after raising concerns late last week over a complete lack of dialogue regarding the proposed changes in flight patterns to and from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. 

The Performance Based Navigation (PBN) procedures up for endorsement would have concentrated flights into more narrow bands coming into and leaving the airport.

The changes were designed to limit the potential for collisions and reduce the noise burden on large parts of the community, but would also increase the burden on select areas. The flights would have been concentrated north and west of the Minnesota River, largely over southwest Minneapolis and Edina.

The board moved to split the difference Monday, allowing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to use the new technology over Eagan, Mendota Heights and the rest of the Minnesota Valley. Over Edina, Richfield and southwest Minneapolis, the MAC opted to oppose the implementation of new flight patterns and leave the current system in place.

FAA officials told the Metropolitan Airports Commission the split implementation will delay implementation of the plan on either side of the Minnesota River until mid-2014, as the new strategy needed to be studied to ensure safety.

City officials said the result of the decision is that the changes will be delayed by at least 18 to 24 months.

City Manager Scott Neal said the time period will allow the city to engage MAC and FAA staff to better learn about the local impact of the flight pattern changes.

"While there is a strong likelihood that we will someday see navigation changes with these two runways in the future, we should not merely accept that the proposals we are looking at today as the proposals we will necessarily get in the future," Neal said. "We can impact this decision in the future. There are options."

The Edina City Council will likely discuss the matter during its Nov. 20 meeting.

A packed meeting regarding the changes went on for much of the afternoon Monday, with residents living near the proposed flight paths turning out in force to ask the MCA to not endorse the plan.

The audience included a handful of local legislators speaking against the proposed changes, including Senator-elect Melisa Franzen (DFL).

"Great outcome for our community," Franzen tweeted. "The MAC voted to further study any changes for Southwest Minneapolis and Edina! Great community effort!"

Outgoing Senator Geoff Michel (R) said he and fellow legislator Keith Downey (R) made several calls and sent letters to MAC commissioners and staff after hearing from concerned Edina residents.

"I think it was a good effort from many in Edina: residents, local government and state legislators," Michel said. "Our message was heard and a bad decision was avoided. Now we will need to stay on top of the MAC and this issue going forward."

Chad Leqve, the MAC's manager of noise, environment and planning told the Star Tribune he hadn't seen a response of this magnitude in his 16 years with the organization.

"It's been overwhelming," he told the paper.

In an e-mail late last week, Mayor Jim Hovland said the NOC has been working on the matter since 2007, but never saw fit to notify the City of Edina of the potential changes during all of that time. Edina has no representation on the NOC.

"We have been effectively denied our due process rights due to a lack of representation on the NOC and the fact that no notice or opportunity to be heard by the NOC had been provided to the City of Edina regarding the proposal," Hovland wrote.

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