New Lake Elmo Airport runway results in increased noise complaints

LAKE ELMO, Minn. (FOX 9) - Living near the Lake Elmo airport has become unbearable since the flight pattern changed last year, according to neighbors who are asking the Metropolitan Airports Council to help.

They say a new runway moved 700 feet to the east as part of a $24 million project that’s now ruining their quality of life.

The new runway is now 3,500-feet-long, making the airport safer and more attractive for pilots when it opened in July 2022.

But neighbors call it a new nuisance for three times as many homes as the previous runway impacted.

"We had a horrendous summer from April, the beginning of April, right through the end of November," Mary Vierling told FOX 9.

The Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) received 4,291 noise complaints about the airport in the third quarter of 2023, compared to six in the same quarter of 2022.
Neighbors say they heard more than 40 flights an hour this summer — tenfold more than the year before.

And with the new runway coming closer to their homes, they measured decibel levels as high as 120 — high enough that OSHA would require hearing protection for workers.

Living near the Lake Elmo airport has become unbearable since the flight pattern changed last year, according to neighbors.

"Awful because when they're coming over like that and it's so repetitive, you can't have a conversation," Vierling said, with a few of her neighbors confirming the complaint.

They point to the growing Lake Elmo Aero flight school as the source of a long the noise. Managers there told FOX 9 they comply with the voluntary noise abatement rules.

They tell local aircraft to "climb straight ahead to at least 700 feet above ground level before making any turns, since takeoffs are the noisiest part of any flight."

But neighbors have documented several of what they call "buzzing incidents" with planes as low as 100 feet.

They’re hoping MAC will give them some rules with teeth.

"What we need them to do is get control of this," Vierling said. "You cannot have that many planes taking off for that long of a period of time. Every single day. There has to be some relief."

MAC is taking public input on the noise abatement plan through the end of the year, but only the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) can make those plans mandatory.