Quiet Pilots May Get Incentives to Park at SMO

Parking a small plane at the Santa Monica Airport could require some extra strings.

The Airport Commission, an advisory board to the Santa Monica City Council, is talking about the possibility of using tie-down leases as a means to quieting air traffic.

Commissioners’ ideas include revoking leases with pilots who repeatedly violate noise and nighttime departure restrictions or giving financial incentives to pilots who comply with the city’s more stringent—but voluntary—"Fly Neighborly Program."

"We can’t dictate what [pilots] do in the air, but we can choose whether or not we lease spaces to them," said Commissioner David  Goddard.

Tying down is an option typically exercised up by pilots who can't afford hangars—it costs $90 a month—but who want to store their aircraft on a monthly basis at the Santa Monica Airport. The city adminsters leases for 280 spaces.

Commissioners said Monday night that they weren't sure that using the leases to punish or reward pilots would be legal, but that they would leave that up to the City Council and City Attorney to determine at a later date.

Whether either would have much of an impact on reducing noise, which some residents say is so loud it rattles their homes, would also be up for debate.

"Those might be our weekend warrior Catalina fliers that we might not be so worried about," Mar Vista Community Councilman Bill Koontz told the Airport Commission Monday night.

"Those operators might be the ones whose use we want to encourage," said Commissioner Ofer Grossman.

Most complaints about noise stem from jets and flight schools, which don't traditionally "tie down."

The schools are a major irritation to residents who live under the circular flight paths followed by student pilots practicing takeoffs and landings. Training flights are a significant part of the airport's operations.

And the volume of jets—which accounted for 13 percent of all airport traffic in February—are "horrific" and "deafening," residents have said.

"They even drown out the television with the windows closed. And I know the noise is much worse for those who live on Ashland and Pier," .

In February, the airport actually saw some dips in the number of noise violations it issues when an airplane generates noise louder tha 95 decibels. Ten pilots were cited, a decrease of 33 percent from the 15 recorded a year earlier.

Commissioners argued that adapting the tie-down leases could be a quick way for the city to flex more of .

"To call the licenses neutral is an understatement," said Goddard. They don't seek "to regulate or direct behavior of licensees in any way."