The airport is in South Burlington but owned and operated by Burlington.
Officials in South Burlington had said for years that they no longer wanted the airport to purchase homes as part of its effort to lessen the impact of airplane noise on residents, because those being demolished are among a small number of affordable homes in the city.
The home purchases are made using FAA grant money. The resolution also would request that future plans for noise mitigation programs or federal grant requests be sent to city officials before going to the FAA. Councilors said the new round of buyouts came as a surprise.
However, residents eligible to have their homes purchased begged the council not to take any action that could scuttle those deals. Supporters of the resolution agreed to table it until a special City Council meeting Jan. 23, enabling more community input. In their comments Tuesday, a majority appeared supportive of the resolution.
Airport Aviation Director Gene Richards has said the FAA is requiring another round of home buyouts before the airport can begin a program that focuses on insulating homes to reduce the impact of plane noise.
The resolution under consideration has no enforcement mechanism and simply makes requests of the airport and the FAA. Its purpose is to clearly state the city’s position on buyouts and the current noise exposure maps, said Councilor Meaghan Emery, who wrote the resolution.
“If this buyout doesn’t go through we’ll essentially be condemned to live in that house,” said Stacee Duncan, a Kirby Road resident whose home is eligible for a buyout.
Duncan and other residents eligible for buyouts said it would be difficult to sell their homes, which as a result of the 2015 noise maps are considered not fit for habitation. The sales should be a private transaction and not part of a policy fight between the city and the airport, they said.
City Council Chair Helen Riehle said she appreciated the concerns of residents who wish to sell their homes. But she said the council must consider what’s best for all residents and that continued home buyouts threaten to erode the affordable housing stock.
The determination of what properties are eligible for a buyout was based on noise maps that were outdated shortly after their release, said councilors who support the resolution.
The resolution calls on the FAA to rescind approval of the noise exposure maps and noise compatibility plans — official documents that draw the boundaries of what property is eligible for federal noise mitigation money and how that money will be used.
Those documents fail to account for what the resolution said is a reduction in commercial passengers at the airport, the negative impacts on the city of further home buyouts, and the “extraordinary decrease of military operations” since the Vermont Air National Guard deployed overseas in December.
The resolution asks that the airport and the FAA work with the city to conduct a noise study that includes the sound impacts of F-35 fighter jets, instead of the current F-16 fighter jets. The Guard is expected to receive F-35s in late 2019 to be based at the airport.
Residents and city officials have expressed frustration since the new noise maps were published in 2015 that the update — the first since 2006 — did not take into account the noise expected from the F-35s.
Richards, the aviation director, has said the maps will be updated again in 2020 to reflect noise from the F-35.
In addition to affordable housing, the city would lose $163,000 in annual property tax revenue if all 39 properties are bought, according to the resolution. That loss is 87 percent of the current combined property tax revenue from those 39 parcels.
City Councilor Pat Nowak, who opposes the resolution, said that while the city would lose that revenue, it would also see an increase in the payment in lieu of tax that the airport makes to the city.
Richards, who did not attend Tuesday’s council meeting, said earlier in the day that he’s willing to help the city work with the FAA to achieve its goals as long as the airport can remain compliant with the terms of its federal grant and respect the rights of property owners.
South Burlington’s concerns with the airport documents are captured in greater detail in a letter City Manager Kevin Dorn sent this month to Richards and Mary Walsh, FAA manager for the New England Region Airports Division. Richards said he is scheduling a meeting between the FAA and South Burlington officials, but no date is set.
In an earlier presentation to the council, Saint Michael’s College professor Vince Bolduc showed South Burlington exit poll results where 89 percent of those surveyed said they want the city to take a “more active” role in negotiations that involve the airport.