Pleasanton council addresses debate about KaiserAir’s proposed move to Livermore Airport

Amid growing concerns from residents about KaiserAir’s proposal to develop new facilities at the Livermore Municipal Airport, the Pleasanton City Council heard a status update during its regular meeting Tuesday night, which included recent findings of the first phase of noise studies.

In his report, assistant city manager Brian Dolan said the city had received 85 emails from 57 different people with concerns and complaints about airport noise.

They also received a petition with 6,100 signatures from residents affected by airport noise. Additionally, 10 speakers addressed inconveniences associated with airport noise during public comment at the council meeting.

“This is really a quality of life issue for the residents and I live on the west side and I can tell you that every now and then we are awakened by a noisy, what I believe to be more of a single engine plane as opposed to a jet, and it’s not a lot of fun,” said Councilmember Kathy Narum during the discussion following the presentation.

In addition to noise impacts, Mayor Karla Brown addressed a concern about contamination from aircraft that use leaded fuel flying over the community. The council recommended that city staff identify and track how to remove leaded fuel from the airport.

Council also directed staff to draft and send a letter to Livermore officials requesting to resurrect a joint resolution adopted in 2010 to pursue various avenues to resolve airport noise issues, including the coordination of airport noise studies and the commitment to hold quarterly meetings of the Livermore-Pleasanton Liaison Committee to improve communications and promote mutual understanding of airport operations.

City staff presented four other recommendations that the council agreed to move forward with, including continuing to track and assist with noise studies and track and review the KaiserAir proposal once it is submitted.

Staff will also continue encouraging Livermore to agree to convene the Livermore-Pleasanton Liaison Committee to facilitate discussion about noise concerns to the Livermore City Council and encourage Livermore to acquire and utilize new and improved technology to track incoming and outgoing overflight paths that generate complaints in an effort to improve the effectiveness of the voluntary night time flying policies in place.

Consultant Nick Johnson of Johnson Aviation Inc. is working with Pleasanton to help city staff perform the recommended next steps and to provide technical expertise.

“We’re not done with this,” Brown said. “This is one of many numerous meetings that we will have, including with the city of Livermore,” she continued, adding that she had an individual conversation with Livermore Mayor Bob Woerner on the topic and will continue those discussions until they reach a solution that they think residents can feel comfortable with.

KaiserAir has not yet submitted a formal application to the city of Livermore for their proposed fixed-base operator development planned for a 45-acre parcel north of West Jack London Boulevard and south of Taxiway Lima.

Livermore officials recently approved a new agreement that gives the Oakland-based charter airliner until July 2021 to complete its application. While Livermore officials told the Weekly that KaiserAir did not provide a detailed explanation for requesting additional time, they noted that lingering pandemic impacts have played a role in slowing overall progress.

A complete recording of the Pleasanton City Council meeting is available here.

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