Edina Gets Partial Say on Airport Noise Committee

The City of Edina got part—but not all—of what it wanted when it asked for a voting spot on the Metropolitan Airports Commission's (MAC) Noise Oversight Committee (NOC).

City Manager Scott Neal spoke before the NOC on Jan. 16, bringing forward a resolution from the Edina City Council requesting a dedicated community spot on the NOC board.

The NOC denied that request, but instead offered an at-large membership to Edina, which it would share with St. Louis Park, St. Paul, Sunfish Lake, Inver Grove Heights, Burnsville and Apple Valley. Edina would not have a vote on any NOC matters, but would at least be able to voice concerns.

"I thanked the NOC for their offer," Neal wrote on his official blog. "I told them that it's not what we asked for, but it's a start."

Edina officials had been pushing for a spot on the NOC since November, when the MAC weighed a major shift in flight patterns over portions of Edina. The initial concern was the the City of Edina had been completely left out of the conversation, with the MAC ultimately deciding to delay the implementation of the new flight patterns over Edina, Richfield and southwest Minneapolis at least 18 to 24 months.

The Performance Based Navigation (PBN) procedures would have concentrated flights into more narrow bands coming into and leaving the Minneapolis-St. Paul International 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.

At the time, city officials said the delay would allow Edina time to engage both MAC and Federal Aviation Administration staff to learn more about the local impact of those flight 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."

Should the City of Edina accept the at-large position, the NOC will amend its bylaws in March to make the change.

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