The Vancouver International Airport is committed to proactively working with communities that could be impacted by increases in air traffic noise.
That’s the assurance offered in the final YVR 2037 Master Plan, a 20-year roadmap for the airport that has been approved by the federal government.
Noting the City of Delta expressed concerns regarding the forecast increase in air traffic over the community, the document notes, “YVR is committed to maintaining ongoing dialogue and consulting on any substantial projects or airspace changes in partnership with NAV Canada.”
In addition to YVR’s existing Aeronautical Noise Management Committee, the airport states it plans to “set up a Delta-focused noise management discussion group that includes members of the airport authority and NAV Canada and staff and citizen representatives of the City of Delta.”
Delta city manager Sean McGill told the Optimist that what YVR has promised is to have another more formal mechanism to meet with civic staff if needed.
“They are meeting with us already and there’s the noise management committee, but after those meetings they’ve agreed to stay behind and meet us on those Delta things, but if we need to formalize it we’ll bring it back to council. We do have a good relationship with them.”
A civic report to council last year notes the city has heard from a number of residents concerned about the significant number of aircraft movements projected in the YVR 2037 Master Plan.
Over the course of the plan aircraft movements over Tsawwassen would increase by 430 per cent, while North Delta would experience a 154 per cent increase.
The civic report notes that while those increases are years away, staff believe this is a good opportunity to propose a number of initiatives for the 2019-2023 YVR Noise Management Plan that could help establish a more comprehensive aircraft noise and flight path baseline for Delta.
The initiatives include increasing the number of noise monitors in Delta, the airport undertaking a study to determine which areas of Metro Vancouver are most impacted by aircraft movements, having a database of community members interested in receiving future correspondence related to airspace change and enhancing the YVR Web Track tool.
The Delta report also notes the initiatives would improve community consultation, track future noise impacts and help identify mitigation measures.
Among other things, YVR’s new master plan promises to provide “additional supporting noise metrics to the community so that our neighbours have accessible and transparent information about the noise impacts of planned activities” as well as provide timely and relevant updates to flight path projections.
The master plan also quotes Paula Kolisnek, a Delta senior policy analyst, who said, “When an airspace change is required to support the number of aircraft movements forecasted in the YVR 2037 Master Plan, Delta wants and needs to be part of the airspace planning process to ensure there is minimal impact to our community.”
Delta currently has noise monitoring stations at South Delta and Delview secondary schools and at the North Delta Recreation Centre.
