Does Livermore Have The Power To Stop Airport Expansion?

LIVERMORE, CA — Thousands of people have signed a petition calling on Tri-Valley's elected officials to halt the expansion of the Livermore Municipal Airport in response to a proposal that would bring Boeing 737 jets to the site.

But local officials said there's very little they can do as it's almost entirely up to the federal government to set ground rules for airports. Livermore capped the airport's development at 1.4 million square feet, but the city must otherwise follow the rules the Federal Aviation Administration has laid out for it, city officials said.

Airports are like highways and freeways, said City Manager Marc Roberts. Federal agencies have a responsibility to make nationwide transportation systems work. "That means, in some cases, constraining our local decision-making," he said.

As of Tuesday, some 3,800 people had signed a petition on Change.org that argued that jets such as the Boeing 737 have no place in Tri-Valley skies.

Existing traffic is already too frequent and noisy, and no additional fixed-base operators should be allowed to set up shop at the airport, the petition said. Fixed-base operators are businesses that service planes and offer services such as fuel and hangar space. They must get approval from the airport before opening.

KaiserAir's Proposal

The petition comes on the heels of the Livermore Airport Commission's February vote throwing initial support to a proposal from KaiserAir, which would bring up to three Boeing 737 planes to the site for maintenance and allow about two flights of the planes per week, or 100 per year, according to the city.

KaiserAir also seeks to build a fixed-base operator terminal that would allow it to provide services to any plane — not just its own — and establish office space, hangars, a fuel storage facility and a self-fueling station. A complete application from KaiserAir is expected within the month, Roberts said.

The FAA requires local agencies to apply federal criteria fairly and consistently, he said. The Livermore Municipal Airport already has a fixed-base operator, and KaiserAir's would be another choice for those at the airport.

There seems to be some confusion in the community about what KaiserAir is seeking, officials said. And the city argued that it doesn't have the authority to keep Boeing 737 planes from landing at its airport.

Petitioners seem to think of the proposal as a matter of building the airport out. But really, it's "building out to what we all agreed to when we did the rezoning," Roberts said.

The airport was rezoned in 2010 following a significant public outreach process that resulted in the city scrapping its 1975 Airport Master Plan, which called for about 2 million square feet of development, according to the city.

At the time, some wanted the airport to grow even bigger, while others wanted it gone altogether, Roberts said. In the end, the city scaled back the development capacity to 1.4 million square feet. Some 650,000 square feet remain open for development today.

KaiserAir's proposal calls for 175,000 square feet of development, according to the city. That's about 12 percent of the space that the airport is budgeted to take up.

Petitioners expressed concern that "what is starting as a few flights per week can easily evolve to hundreds."

That's not likely, given the maximum scale of the airport, Roberts said. But the city has no say in who lands at or takes off from the airport, so it's possible that some larger aircraft may use the airport in the future. "We certainly don't have the capacity to dramatically grow the airport," he said.

Petitioners claimed that traffic and noise have grown significantly in recent years. But the airport's operations have essentially been halved over the past 30 years. There were a total of 282,000 takeoffs and landings in the early 1990s, but only 145,000 were recorded in 2020, according to the city. Noisier planes than the ones included in KaiserAir's proposal have used the airport in years past, the city said.

What The City Can Do

Livermore does have the ability to influence change in some areas of concern identified by petitioners, Roberts said.

For one, there's the matter of noise. Petitioners correctly pointed out that an airport noise study is recommended every other year, but that none has been conducted in the past six years.

The city is in the process of conducting the first phase of a two-part noise study, Roberts said. The first phase will occur in the spring, and the second will occur in the fall after the wind patterns have shifted.

Livermore is bringing a consultant on board for the project and is working with its neighbors in Dublin and Pleasanton to see whether there are any additional areas where those cities would like Livermore to place noise sensors.

The last two noise studies came amid transitions in the airport and public works department and were never completed, he said. As for noise complaints, Mayor Bob Woerner said any and all complaints will be taken seriously and investigated.

Livermore also has established a good neighbor policy, which requests that pilots avoid flying from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. and otherwise looks to reduce noise in noise-sensitive areas of Livermore, Dublin and Pleasanton that encroach upon the airport.

The FAA prevents the city from being able to revoke a pilot's license, issue fines or take other actions that could allow it to enforce the good neighbor policy, Roberts said.

For its part, KaiserAir indicated that it would be willing to accept to the city's good neighbor policy, he said. The city would be able to enforce the good neighbor policy if KaiserAir agreed to include its terms in the contract, enabling the city to write consequences into the contract, Roberts said.

What's Next

The airport commission signed off on KaiserAir's proposal, but it's still a long way from final approval.

The airport commission is slated to receive KaiserAir's application probably within the next month, at which time officials will begin the process of reviewing it and determining whether it is consistent with the airport's zoning, Roberts said. If that checks out, officials will begin the environmental review process.

Next, the application would head to the Livermore Planning Commission, which must sign off on any physical changes proposed by KaiserAir. That could happen in late summer at the earliest or in the fall. By that time, the city will already have its initial round of results from the spring noise impact study, Roberts said.

The Livermore City Council would then review the application if everything checks out at the planning commission.

Read more from critics here. Read more about the city's response to concerns about the KaiserAir proposal here.