Do we want to live with a busy Jet Airport next door??
Memorial Airfield viewed from above Sun Lakes showing the proposed 11° runway re-alignment
The Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) is considering development of the Memorial Airfield, located less than 2 miles West of Sun Lakes into a major jet airport, including an aviation fuel tank farm.
They project more than 61,000 operations per year. This equates to a landing or takeoff every 10 minutes 24/7! Noise, pollution and accident risk, is that what we want in our backyard? Here are some additional facts:
The GRIC expects 75% of the funding to come from the US Tax payers! Once the GRIC accepts our public tax money to develop the airport, the FAA will prohibit both the GRIC and local communities from imposing any airport noise restrictions such as curfews, limits on amount of traffic, or types of aircraft
The Memorial Airfield Master Plan calls for handling aircraft 2 to 3 times heavier than the maximum allowed at Scottsdale Airport and Scottsdale had almost 11,000 noise complaints in 2003!
- Scottsdale is limited to aircraft weighing 75,000 lbs or less
- Memorial is planning to accept 100,000 lb aircraft and on occasion 165,000 lb aircraft (Gulfstream Vs and Boeing 737s)
- Scottsdale no longer has land to increase the size of the airport. Memorial Airfield is not bound by this limit.
- The GRIC says they are not planning airline flights at the airport, yet Scottsdale said that in 1978 and are now forecasting 6,500 airline flights by 2009
- The East Valley Tribune reported on 9/26 3 airlines have asked to start service there NOW!
- The GRIC says noise will be minimized by using ‘fly friendly’ procedures, but:
- None of these procedures are defined for Memorial so we can’t evaluate their effect
- These procedures will be recommendations only and will not be mandatory
- Pilots use these procedures at Scottsdale Airport, yet there were almost 11,000 noise complaints in 2003!
- Pilots try to minimize noise, but they also need to fly for their benefit and that means ‘over’ rather than ‘around’
-The airport will be open 24/7. Business people often leave early/come home late- their noise will impact our sleep
The GRIC has stated they see the airport as an economic engine to their community. The only way they can meet this criteria is to
have a large amount of jet traffic which will mean excessive noise and overflights- small aircraft alone will not bring in the money
CITIZEN ACTION by Sun Lakes & local communities can stop this development!!
If you want facts about the airport development - how it impacts Sun Lakes and surrounding communities, and how we might stop its
currently planned development, contact us at:
CRAMA (Concerned Residents About Memorial Airfield), P O BOX 13204, Chandler, AZ 85248
or Email us at crama2@prodigy.net
For more information go to www.geocities.com/sunlakesarizona
and select the CRAMA and Memorial Airfield links.
To download a copy of this flier, click here