Residents query noise boundary expansion

RESIDENTS have started to quiz Queenstown Airport’s management team over the company’s plans to expand its noise boundaries and almost double aircraft movements by 2045.

Dozens of people living in the area affected by the airport’s proposed 30year master plan attended a community dropin session at Queenstown Events Centre on Saturday to voice their concerns and find out more about the plans.

The Queenstown Airport Corporation (QAC) has proposed extending its outer control noise boundary (OCB) into large residential areas as part of its longterm plan to more than double passenger numbers and allow 41,600 aircraft movements a year by 2045.

Semiretired Marina Heights resident Peter Jenkins, who lives in the proposed OCB, said ‘‘right now, some of the passenger aircraft on takeoff are so loud we have to turn off our TVs’’.

‘‘They are proposing an increase even further, with no mitigation. Why?

‘‘It seems to me that international aircraft are becoming more sophisticated and the engines are becoming quieter, so why they need to allow it louder further out I don’t understand.’’

Residential areas the proposed OCB would extend into include properties around Frankton Rd, a large section of Kelvin Heights and parts of Lake Hayes Estate and Shotover Country.

The planned noise boundary increase would affect more than 3000 additional houses between the proposed air noise boundary (ANB) around the airport and the suggested OCB.

Kelvin Heights resident and designer, Stephen Counsell said he already found the number of flights in Queenstown ‘‘quite intrusive’’.

‘‘It is for short periods of time, but in those short periods it is annoying as hell.

‘‘Already Queenstown feels quite full.

‘‘We have got enough [tourism] going on now — that needs to be sustainable.

‘‘Often what drives a lot of development are the people who are immediately making money from those tourists.’’

The increase in flight numbers by 2045 would mean an average of 114 takeoffs or landings a day.

Annual passenger movements, counting both arrivals and departures, are expected to increase from about 2.05 million to about 5.1 million.

The airport has predicted considerable growth over the coming decades and offered to spend millions of dollars buying 34 homes located within the noisiest boundary immediately surrounding the airport.

It will offer fullyfunded noise mitigation packages to residents living between this boundary and the proposed ANB, which includes an additional 58 houses, and 75% funding packages to those living between the ANB and the next boundary.

All other residents within the OCB will receive no mitigation funding as part of the proposals.

Rachel Tregidga, general manager of property and planning at QAC, said the highturnout at the dropin session was a positive sign for the consultation process.

‘‘Most people are very happy with the materials that we have produced — both online and in print.

‘‘They have come through with a lot of questions about our proposal and we have been able to help them with their queries.’’

The company launched a fiveweek public consultation on the proposed noise boundary changes last week.

The consultation, which includes another five dropin sessions at locations around Queenstown, will close on August 20.

joshua.walton@oct.co.nz

❛ It is for short periods of time, but in those short periods it is annoying as hell