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<br />Proposals for Revising Northern California Metroplex – Alameda County/Contra Costa County 1 <br />INTRODUCTION <br /> <br />The airspace of Northern California is complex with traffic from multiple international and <br />regional airports and military air activity. The interconnectedness of arriving and departing <br />traffic from all are designed to maintain safety and efficiency. Arriving and departing flight paths <br />and procedures for both Oakland International (OAK) and San Francisco International Airports <br />(SFO) were significantly altered in the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Next <br />Generation program (NextGen) and have resulted in significant noise impacts negatively <br />affecting multiple communities in Alameda County and Contra Costa County. With arriving and <br />departing procedures from multiple airports being highly interdependent, they must be evaluated <br />collectively. Aircraft noise issues for other counties in the Northern California Metroplex are <br />being addressed independently from those in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. <br /> <br />In response to significant noise concerns from residents and at the request of the FAA, the <br />Oakland Airport-Community Noise Forum (Forum) accepted the task of working with its <br />members and community noise groups to provide the FAA with recommendations and proposals <br />to adjust and revise published procedures to mitigate NextGen noise concerns. In response, the <br />FAA agreed to review such proposals and explore modifications to mitigate aircraft noise <br />impacts that arose from NextGen in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. <br /> <br />This document is written to supplement the Forum’s request for revisions to procedures and <br />operations as they currently fly from OAK and SFO in a letter submitted to the FAA on <br />June 17, 2016 and contains the additional forthcoming proposals noted in that letter. It is <br />formatted to provide general information on OAK and SFO airports and their air traffic, and <br />continues by addressing requested changes first to OAK followed by SFO flight paths and <br />procedures. <br /> <br />The Forum respectfully requests the FAA consider the supplemental proposals provided herein <br />to address and mitigate the NextGen noise impacts on East Bay area communities. These <br />proposals were produced by a special NextGen Subcommittee formed by the Forum. This <br />subcommittee was tasked with considering and developing credible community-driven noise <br />mitigation proposals that are reasonable, maintain aviation safety, as well as respect efficient fuel <br />and airspace use. Proposed recommendations considered objective data about noise and <br />population impact in order to mitigate the impact of air traffic concentration above “sacrificial <br />communities” and bring about a fairer distribution of noise. <br /> <br />For any proposals that the FAA does not consider preliminarily feasible, the Forum requests the <br />FAA provide specific reasons for such a determination. The Forum also welcomes any additional <br />mitigation proposals or measures the FAA may introduce for consideration to address aircraft <br />noise issues in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. <br /> <br />The Forum appreciates that airspace in the Bay area is complex and a change to one aspect can <br />negatively influence as well as positively affect other aspects. For this reason, the proposals in <br />this document were developed to integrate positive effects for associated flight paths and <br />procedures that could be affected. <br /> <br />193