Wednesday, March 1, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
21
Neighbors air flight concerns at city meeting
The ODA Board will con-
sider the issue at its March 7
meeting in Salem, at which
time public testimony on the
matter will only be taken dur-
ing the visitor communica-
tion time at the beginning of
their meeting — not at the
time they consider the issue.
Members of the local
activist group Save Our
Skies SOS listened but were
not able to comment dur-
ing the quarterly joint meet-
ing of the Deschutes County
Commissioners and Sisters
City Council, as they con-
ducted a review of the
ODA hearing held meeting
February 8. The workshop
was held prior to the regular
City Council meeting.
Russell clarified that for
the coming season, if the
skydiving operation at the
airport wants to land on prop-
erty in the County, they will
have to apply for a condi-
tional use permit (CUP) from
the County. At this point in
time, no application has been
received by the County and,
if one were to be filed tomor-
row, Russell estimated the
permit wouldn’t be available
until midsummer.
If skydivers land in the
County without the CUP,
the company will be cited,
which incurs a $750 fine. If
the activity continues without
a CUP, they are required to
appear in court.
The major concern of
neighbors regarding the sky-
diving operation is the noise
generated by the plane as it
By Sue Stafford
Correspondent
Neighbors of Sisters
Eagle Airport made known
their concerns over the air-
port’s impact on their lives
at a City Council meeting
Thursday evening, which
followed a joint workshop
of the Deschutes County
Commission and the Sisters
City Council last week.
Whether their concerns will
have an impact on the ground
or in the air remains an open
question.
Deschutes County senior
planner Peter Russell noted
that the Oregon Department
of Aviation (ODA) record is
closed to public input regard-
ing the application by the
Sisters Airport to be listed in
Appendix M, which would
make the privately owned,
public-use airport of State
concern.
To be approved for inclu-
sion, the airport has the bur-
den of proof to meet one of
three criteria as identified in
Oregon Administrative Rules
(OAR) 836.610(b)(A-C):
A. Provide important links
in air traffic in this state;
B. Provide essential safety
or emergency services; or
C. Are of economic impor-
tance to the County where the
airport is located.
The criteria are very broad
and open to interpretation,
and advocates both for and
against commercial activi-
ties at the airport have their
arguments.
gains jump altitude.
The County doesn’t usu-
ally use noise level of an
activity as criteria for a
CUP. The Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) has
jurisdiction as soon as an
aircraft lifts off the ground.
Neither the City nor the
County has a noise restriction
ordinance regarding aircraft.
When the airport was
annexed into the City in
2012-13, new City code was
written allowing for multiple
commercial uses such as sky-
diving, helicopter tours, and
glider flights, all activities
that critics argue had been
clearly forbidden by restric-
tions in previous deeds dating
back to 1978.
Each time ownership of
the airport changed hands,
from Brooks Resources to
Cliff Clemens, to the Arpkes,
to the Goodsells, there were
prohibitions on gliders and
glider tow planes, parachute
jumping, air shows and acro-
batic flying, and overnight
use by recreational vehicles
and campers. In other words,
the intent of previous owners
appears to have been to main-
tain the airport as a small
local airstrip.
Currently, the activities
allowed by City code are
under the jurisdiction of the
City. If the airport is granted
inclusion on the Appendix M,
those activities change from
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PHOTO BY SUE STAFFORD
Airport neig2bors broug2t signs to City Hall to express t2eir concerns
about aircraft noise.
City code to State statute.
City Manager Rick Allen
explained that changes could
be made to the City code, but
it would be a very lengthy
process, involving public
hearings and likely a number
of appeals that could stretch
out over a number of years.
Allen clarified that all
those approved activities
must take place on the airport
property and not on any land
outside the airport boundary,
unless a CUP is granted for
such purposes. At this time,
the City has not received
any applications for com-
mercial aviation recreational
activities.
Members of SOS testified
during visitor communication
at the Sisters City Council
meeting last Thursday eve-
ning, hoping there was some-
thing to be done to delay
the ODA decision until the
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City and/or County officials
could bring the airport to
the table to talk about ways
to work with the community
to mitigate the noise coming
from the skydiving business,
which operated out of the air-
port last spring, summer, and
fall.
The members of SOS
asked for several things from
the County and the City: They
encouraged both entities
to write letters to the ODA
Board requesting a delay in
the Appendix M decision
since the entire process was
new to everyone involved.
The other privately owned,
public-use airports have all
been part of Appendix M
for years, so no one had any
experience dealing with that
type of application. Because
of that, information requested
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