Thu, Nov 10, 2011
Residents Brace For 10X Increase In FedEx Flights From
KGSO
Plans by FedEx to step up operations at Piedmont Triad
International Airport have NIMBYs up in arms, and there's no
denying the company's plans could have a significant impact on
their quality of life. WGHP-TV notes that FedEx currently operates
nine-to-ten daily flights from the airport known locally as PTI.
That could reach 126 per day, and many of those flights would be at
night.
The High Point (NC) City Council, to its credit, is talking not
about pointless head-butting with the FAA over jurisdiction, but
rather about revising its zoning plans to prevent more incompatible
land development directly under routes out of the airport. On
Monday, council held a public hearing and got an earful from
residents concerned not only with the noise of low-passing cargo
jets, but safety, in the wake of a GA accident in which a plane
departing the airport hit a home in March. The homeowner's family
was not injured, but their home was set ablaze, and the two
occupants of the aircraft died.
But zoning changes won't be much help to the NIMBYs already
living in the noisy neighborhoods. Mary Jo Rumbaugh, who spoke at
Monday night's meeting and lives in the Fraser Downs neighborhood
where the March accident happened, told council, "I know that they
bought some homes out closest to the airport. I want my house
bought."
More meetings are planned with residents in specific
neighborhoods most affected.
Unlike some NIMBY stories, it's not hard to find people happy
that FedEx is expanding in the area. The Piedmont area has been
booming for years, and some see the noise problem as a small price
to pay for new jobs and economic growth. Resident Dick Morse told
WGHP, "The more commercial traffic we have in and out of this
airport, the greater the benefit to the local economy. I'm glad to
see FedEx here, and I hope they prosper."
But like most other NIMBY stories, many of the people
complaining in this case don't own up to the fact that they chose
to buy homes near an airport. Piedmont Triad International has been
in its current location since 1941. FedEx's plans to make the
airport a new mid-Atlantic hub were announced in 1998. And FedEx
has always done much of its flying at night.
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