Some Belmont and Watertown residents (mostly towards the eastern side) have been disturbed by new concentrated flight patterns from Logan — almost forgot to post this update, but a jet overhead reminded me.
Working closely with me and with Representatives Hecht and Rogers, Congresswoman Clark has been very diligent and helpful in pursuing this issue. The FAA responds only to federal legislators, so her help has been essential. She offers an update on her own website.
We first became aware of this new plan and posted about it in February 2013. As the new plan was implemented and complaints developed, we’ve done a lot to look into residents’ concerns and to explore solutions. My own take is that our options are limited. The basic new flight pattern appears to be here to stay. It’s one of several flight patterns that Logan air traffic control will use depending upon weather. We can only urge that, when it’s a jump ball as to which pattern the weather favors, they don’t choose us. That, of course, may be the opposite of what another community wants. Belmont and Watertown are both now participating in the citizen’s advisory committee that consults with MassPort.
The pattern changed yesterday to be over Belmont and Watertown–it felt like we were being buzzed every few minutes. And, as it was a beautiful day, we were sitting outside eating dinner. It was more than annoying, and definitely not conducive to conversation. I’m sorry to hear that it is here to stay. Do you think it will devalue property down the road?
I think the pattern is here to stay for a while as an option for air traffic controllers. However, I think we can work to minimize the percentage of the time that they are using the pattern.
It’s the kind of thing that may change from time to time. I don’t know if it will have a long-term property value impact.
Will definitely stay on the issue.
Thanks for keeping us updated on this. We live in East Watertown and it seems like the past few weeks the noise has been worse than ever. Planes literally coming overhead every 2-3 minutes and each one just as loud as the last. I understand there was a process before the new runway started to be put to use, but like many issues, until it affects you directly, you don’t get involved and we didn’t realize the extent of the noise we would be dealing with until after it started! Please let us know any additional steps we can take to voice our concerns to the appropriate parties. Thank you,
Here’s the line for complaints. Complaining puts us on the record, but the larger process is the CAC process — see the response to Anna below.
I moved to Belmont last August (2013) and have found the noise to have gotten increasingly worse this summer. It seems like now every single day they are using the flight pattern over Belmont and the planes are flying lower. Is there anyway they could alternate and only use this flight pattern on some days? Please keep me posted on what is happening and how I can make my voice heard in this. Can you also provide me with the address for the people who are on the Citizen’s Advisory Committee? What power do they have? Thank you.
Here is the website for the noise study and Citizens Advisory Committee. See also the previous posts in this thread for more background.
This is a very complicated, multi-player process. There is no easy answer. We are looking at all angles, but basically the new flight pattern has considerable public benefits and we may not be able to change it in a big way — rest assured that we are turning over every stone we can find!
I live in Arlington, but being on the Belmont line, I have experienced the same recent increase in air traffic. I’ve lived near Spy Pond for about four years and noise from Logan was never really something I noticed until late last month. Since then, the frequency has increased tremendously and the planes are a lot lower. As some others here have said, many days the planes come in one after another for hours on end. Though not my district representative, I commend Senator Brownsberger for his leadership tackling this issue for us all.
Hi folks, the last few days have been bad due to Northwest winds, but today has been quieter. In general, we should have noisy days less than 25% of the time based on history.
I’m in the western part of Belmont. The jet noise has been intensifying. It’s very intrusive. Thought it was Hanscomb.