Love Field Good Neighbor Meeting Notes
Although only about 20 people from our area attended the Love Field Good Neighbor Program meeting on Tuesday, October 15, there were good questions and also good answers from the Airport and Dallas Water Utilities (DWU) representatives.
Noise
One neighbor asked why there has been more aircraft noise in the last several weeks and the answer is that the Lemmon Avenue runway had been closed for a good part of the summer so all traffic was directed to the Denton Avenue runway. Starting in January, 2021, the opposite will occur as the Denton Avenue runway will be closed and rebuilt and all traffic will be moved to the Lemmon Avenue runway for the better part of nine or ten months once the construction begins. Although it will be quieter for neighbors to the west of Love Field, they too will be impacted as the construction entrance will be off Denton Drive at Gifford Street.
Once construction is done, the flight traffic will revert to previous patterns of smaller aircraft on the Lemmon Avenue runway, which is shorter, and larger aircraft on the Denton Avenue runway. The Airport and Friends of Bachman Lake will provide more details about runway construction as the timeframe approaches in the coming year.
Another great question had to do with noise pollution and how to report issues about aircraft noise. There is concern that the new reporting system, which is internet based, is not as easy/convenient as calling in. We highly recommend you check out the noise lab website set up by Love Field: https://dal.noiselab.casper.aero and then click on the Complaints menu item to report problems. There is also good information that answers some basic questions about why planes fly where they do and what affects the noise you hear.
Construction
Inquiring minds also asked about the mound of dirt known as “Bachman mountain“ and why so much work was happening near the Lemmon Avenue runway. The Airport responded that it has had to build additional taxiways to handle the incremental increase in traffic on that runway come 2021. By the way, Bachman Mountain should be gone early next year.
Trails
The Airport is working on building trails and parks outside of the perimeter fence. This is good news for the community. One of the areas they recently allocated as a possible park, a tract of land next to the Sam’s Club off of Northwest Highway and Webb Chapel Road, seemed to concern some neighbors. They indicated they would not send their children to a park there due to it being in the flight path. In fact, there are many areas in Bachman Lake park that are under the flight path as the lake and park are situated at the end of two runways. These areas include the the children’s park next to the Recreation Center.
We believe that any additional green space that we can secure on the north side of Northwest Highway is a win for the community. We’re glad that the Airport is creating a park in the previously fenced off area and will work as a community to make sure it’s put to good use.
Love Field also announced that they received a grant from the National Park Service to plan a loop trail around the airport. Friends of Bachman Lake asked to be included in the plans since we are aware of other efforts, such as the one being funded by NTCOG, that would be complementary to this effort.
One of the challenges we find is navigating through overlapping projects. As we make sense of it all and try and coordinate with various entities, we’re very grateful that there are so many positive projects in the works to begin with. Now let’s see how we can connect them all to Bachman Lake!