RADAR Residents And DeKalb Acting Responsibly

PDK WATCH NEWSLETTER May 2003

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The purpose of PDK Watch is to protect and assure the future of

our established residential neighborhoods and quality of life in the

area affected by PDK Airport.

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IMPORTANT!--PROPOSED JOINT STATEMENT

ON PDK AIRPORT

Please review the following and share any reactions

with us as soon as possible.

Dear Neighbors and Friends,

Three months ago, PDK Watch was approached by

Christian Cherniak, President of the PDK Airport

Association, which represents over 800 general

aviation pilots. Mr. Cherniak shared the PDK Airport

Association's interest in preserving the present

character of PDK Airport as a general aviation

reliever airport that provides strong support for

recreational flying and use of smaller aircraft.

Toward this end, he expressed an interest in exploring

whether the PDK Airport Association and PDK Watch

could join together in supporting the common goal of

insuring that PDK Airport never become a commercial

airport with regularly scheduled passenger, cargo, or

freight services.

PDK Watch also has long been concerned with insuring

that PDK Airport not expand to become a commercial

airport with regularly scheduled passenger, cargo, or

freight services. We are convinced that such a

transformation of PDK Airport would contribute to a

variety of negative environmental impacts, including

increased noise, disruption, fumes, and safety

problems. Although PDK Watch's greatest long-term

concerns relate to the possibility that PDK might

become a commercial airport with more and more larger,

heavier aircraft, we also feel that more work can and

must be done to decrease the aircraft disruption by

smaller planes and jets that are currently using PDK

Airport. The legal issues involving the increasing

number of larger aircraft using PDK airport also is a

key focus of the Lawsuit (see the discussion at the

end of this Newsletter).

During several productive work sessions with Mr.

Cherniak, long-standing members of PDK Watch were able

to explain important community concerns about PDK

Airport, while he, in turn shared some of the concerns

of the PDK Airport Association. A major focus of PDK

Watch's discussions revolved around assessing airport

related problems and the impact of noise on our

neighborhoods.

As we compiled and categorized the problems that most

concern the PDK Airport Association and PDK Watch, we

realized that we share many common goals. We realized

that we could accomplish more by working together,

rather than by allowing ourselves to be played off

against each other by those who support PDK Airport

expansion. Growing out of these discussions, we

jointly developed a set of principles and action plans

that we feel we can jointly support. We believe that

these proposals, if adopted and implemented, would

have a positive impact on the relationship between PDK

Airport and the surrounding neighborhoods.

During the course of these discussions, we have been

impressed by Mr. Cherniak's personal commitment to

working together with us to try to solve these

problems. As a result of his experiences as a pilot

and an aviation instructor in Van Nuys,

California--where there was a more cooperative rather

than confrontational approach to relations between the

airport and the surrounding community--Mr. Cherniak

feels that many steps can be taken to decrease noise

and aircraft disruption in the areas surrounding PDK

Airport. He is currently working in conjunction with

Mike Principino, a Drew Valley resident, and the PDK

Tower to evaluate what specific changes might be made

in flight patterns and altitudes of the non instrument

(VFR) aircraft using PDK Airport.

Over the course of several work sessions involving Mr.

Cherniak and PDK Watch leaders, we formulated,

reviewed, and edited the Joint Statement that follows.

We are in agreement that the proposals in this

Statement are very positive ones and that if we can

work act jointly we can have greater political

influence and be more likely to achieve our key joint

goal of seeing that PDK Airport does not expand into a

full-scale commercial airport.

Your input and reaction to this proposed Joint

Statement are very important. Please review it

closely as soon as possible and e-mail your comments or

questions to: pdkwatch@yahoo.com, or send your

comments via regular mail by June 20, 2003, at the latest to:

David Green or Mickey Feltus, c/o PDK Watch,

P. O. Box 49325, Atlanta, Ga. 30359.

If you support this joint statement, Please send or

email a brief statement of approval to the above

addresses. Be sure to include your name and the

neighborhood you live in or represent.

The following is text of the proposed Joint

Statement:

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Joint Statement by the PDK Airport Association and PDK

Watch on Future Policies for DeKalb Peachtree (PDK)

Airport

PREAMBLE: The PDK Airport Association, whose members

support the general aviation use of PDK Airport, and

PDK Watch, whose members are committed to protecting

and assuring the future of established residential

neighborhoods and quality of life in the area affected

by PDK Airport, agree that it is in our mutual

interest to maintain PDK Airport STRICTLY as a general

aviation reliever airport, which we define as an

airport that primarily services small, light aircraft,

and that prohibits regularly scheduled passenger,

cargo, or freight services, as in Fed Ex, Delta

Connection, UPS, DHL, or any feeder services.

The goal of the statement that follows is to highlight

and promote points of common concern among general

aviation and community interests relating to PDK

Airport. Our mutual goal of avoiding airport

expansion that would be detrimental to our common

interests has brought our two organizations together

in the conviction that positive means can be found to

accomplish these shared objectives. Toward this end,

we urge the adoption and implementation of certain

principles, procedures, and ordinances by the DeKalb

County Board of Commissioners, including, but not

limited to, the following:

I. General Aviation Concerns:

1. We are committed to insuring that PDK Airport

remain STRICTLY a general reliever airport that

supports and sustains infrastructure necessary to

service and accommodate small light aircraft. In this

regard, we are opposed to any types of activity or

expansion that might force out small, light aircraft.

2. In order to allow the Airport Advisory Board to

focus its attention on more substantive policy

matters, routine renewals of standardized leases for

T-hangars of the current size (as of March 2003) at

PDK Airport that house small aircraft should not

require review by the Airport Advisory Board.

3. No PDK Airport development or activity changes,

including the introduction of new fuel depots, should

be approved by the DeKalb County Board of

Commissioners without being openly considered and

complying with all environmental requirements of

federal, state, and local law. Any such changes must

also be in accordance with the DeKalb County Master

Plan and the County Land Use Plan, as well as with the

PDK Airport Master Plan and the Airport Layout Plan

[SPECIFIC DATES NEEDED ON ALL THESE DOCUMENTS],

as such plans shall be revised on a regular basis, with

full public participation and input from neighborhoods

and pilots.

4. DeKalb County should reaffirm its policies

prohibiting the establishment of regularly scheduled

passenger, cargo, or freight services at PDK Airport.

In order to implement those policies in binding

contractual agreements, all future leases and lease

renewals granted at PDK Airport should include a

provision in the lease or lease renewal prohibiting

regularly scheduled passenger, cargo, or freight

service.

5. If the County should ever consider making changes

to the aforementioned policies prohibiting regularly

scheduled passenger, cargo, or freight services at PDK

Airport, at least three (3) well-advertised evening

public meetings at which public comment--both verbal

and written--may be presented must be held over a

period of at least three months within a six (6) mile

radius of the Airport.

II. Open Records Concerns:

6. In conjunction with the DeKalb Board of

Commissioners and representatives of the concerned

public, PDK Airport should develop a clear, written

statement of the step-by-step procedures by which

application may be made for a lease at PDK Airport and

by which leases may be considered and granted. All

future lease opportunities at PDK Airport should be

publicly announced, and an open application process

should be established and consistently followed in

applying for such publicly announced lease

opportunities.

7. Employees of DeKalb County should be required to

provide prompt and accurate information to the PDK

Association, PDK Watch, and the concerned public upon

request. Such information should, following the

Georgia Open Records Act procedures, be made available

at reasonable rates, and the least expensive available

means of accessing and securing those records should

be made available to those seeking such information.

III. Policy, Land Use, and Noise Concerns:

8. Since a crucial neighborhood concern is reducing

airport noise, the PDK Airport Association and PDK

Watch should apply their mutual, good faith, and

ongoing best efforts to secure the adoption and

implementation of the FAR Part 150 noise compatibility

recommendation measures that were approved by the FAA

and DeKalb County (see attached sheet or

http://pdkwatch.org/AirportNoisePolicy.htm). In

conjunction with the AAB, citizen representatives from

both the PDK Association and PDK Watch should work

closely and collaboratively so that the end product is

a mutually acceptable joint effort.

9. The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners is

strongly encouraged to give serious consideration to

adopting, as expeditiously as possible, the policy

statement that the PDK Airport Advisory Board

unanimously approved at its July 2002 meeting as part

of an official DeKalb County policy statement for PDK

Airport (that policy statement is attached). Adopting

a clear set of DeKalb County policy guidelines for the

operations of PDK Airport will provide essential

guidance and direction to those managing the airport.

10. As part of an effort to systematize flight

patterns and reduce noise disruption in residential

areas, we recommend that the DeKalb County Board of

Commissioners create a committee composed of airport

administration, pilot, and neighborhood

representatives that would work together to determine

a set of clear visual flight landmarks that pilots can

be encouraged to use as the basis for flight paths in

and out of the airport, in order that noise disruption

in residential areas can be minimized.

11. The land near Clairmont Road that has been

purchased for noise abatement under the Part 150

program and the land near Clairmont Road that has been

designated as a runway protection zone (see the

attached legal descriptions and plats for the two

areas) should be put in a permanent easement as

greenspace that is not subject to development for any

other purpose.

CONCLUSION: It is recognized that in making this

joint request, the PDK Airport Association and PDK

Watch have established and intend to continue an

ongoing relationship with each other to share

information and concerns.

DEFEAT OF PROPOSED GLOBE LEASE AMENDMENT

After the November 2002 approval by the PDK Airport

Advisory Board of a proposed amendment to the Globe

Lease property, a materially altered version of that

lease amendment was brought before the DeKalb Board of

Commissioners on January 28, 2003--without any

indication that the provisions had been changed. PDK

Watch identified a 42% increase in the size of one of

the land parcels covered; a new paragraph abrogating

the lease restriction on conducting "scheduled

operations" from the property if other tenants of the

PDK Airport should ever be granted such rights; a

provision automatically authorizing approval of

subleases unless the Commissioners formally acted to

deny such approval within 60 days; and provisions that

actually reduced the amount of money the County would

make from some parts of the lease.

Decision on the lease amendment was deferred until

February 11, 2003, when Commissioner Gale Walldorff

expressed herself satisfied with it but Commissioner

Burrell Ellis asked for and secured a deferral. On

February 25, 2003, the proposed amendment to the

Globe Lease Building property was unanimously rejected

by the Commissioners.

UPDATE ON THE LAWSUIT

Regarding the lawsuit to which many of you have

generously contributed, representatives of the

community continue to pursue our legal rights to

obtain public records on airport activities from the

FAA and DeKalb County. In addition, litigation plans

also center on requiring the County and the FAA to

fulfill their agreement to limit size of aircraft

using PDK Airport to small general aviation planes.

Fundraising efforts to support the litigation

necessary to protect these vital community interests

is ongoing. All contribution should go to: F.O.R.

DeKalb, Inc., at P.O. Box 29604, Atlanta, GA 30359.

Note that members of PDK Watch strongly support this

lawsuit. We believe that the proposed Joint Statement

above will strengthen our position, as well, as we

work to develop more community-friendly policies at

PDK Airport.

PDK Watch is also grateful to those of you who

contribute toward the maintenance of our website,

www.pdkwatch.org, and costs of Newsletter printing and

mailing. To support these efforts, please make a check

payable to: SVEN O. LOVEGREN and note on the check

that it is for PDK WATCH. Mailing address: PDK Watch,

P.O. Box 49325, Atlanta, GA 30359.

If you would like to receive notice of updates to information on PDK Airport,

send your e-mail address to pdkwatch@yahoo.com.

Please copy and distribute this newsletter, but remember that
NO COPY GOES INTO a mailbox without the proper postage.

PDK Watch makes every effort to verify all information in the newsletter.
Corrections are welcomed.