I am a resident of Walteria who is concerned about the frequency of helicopter fly-overs in the neighborhood. I recently sent an email to the mayor and City Council asking them to consider changes in policy that would limit the frequency of these flights. FYI: I've pasted my email below. If you share similar concerns, I encourage you to contact our city officials and ask them not to continue to degrade our quality of life.
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Mr. Mayor and Honorable City Council Members,
I am a resident of the Walteria neighborhood in South Torrance. I have some questions concerning the frequency of helicopter flights over and near my house. In my opinion these flights are becoming more and more frequent and are a form of noise pollution that should be reduced and not increased. I work at home and while my house has double pane windows, I still find this noise obnoxious even when all windows are shut and I find it hard to fathom that the noise generated by these flights is not in violation of city noise limits. I understand that many of these flights are to test helicopters built by Robinson. According to Robinson's public relations department, these test flights begin at 7:30 in the morning and cease at 3:30 in the afternoon. Unfortunately, after Robinson stops testing, the flight schools immediately take to the air. On some days, I have had helicopters flying over my house for almost 12 hours. Does 12 hours seem excessive to you?
I also understand that Robinson has expanded its production. More production means more helicopters and more helicopters means more testing. Will there ever be a situation in Robinson is producing too many helicopters? Or, to put it another way, on some days Robinson will fly over my house more than 20 times per hour. Does this seem excessive to you? Is there any limit on the number of times Robinson can fly over my house per hour or per day? Can I expect a day to arrive where copters will fly over my house 60 times per hour?
I understand the economic importance of Robinson and I would not be in favor of it closing or moving out of Torrance. I am less convinced of the importance of the flight schools. But I am curious why the city has not adopted policies that better balance Robinson's production schedule with quality of life for local residents. Here's my proposal: restrict fly overs in specific neighborhoods to one day each week. As an example, on Monday Robinson can fly over and around Walteria all day long. But on Tuesday, those flights must move to the north, south, east or west - say to Lomita. On Wednesday the flights would cover areas other than Walteria or Lomita. Same for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Why isn't such a simple system not feasible?
In conclusion, and again, while I support Robinson's economic contribution to the community, I still must ask these questions: how does Robinson's presence improve my quality of life and that of my neighbors? And that of people who work at home or work shifts that require them to sleep during the day? How does it increase the value of my home and that of my neighbors? Am I being too much of a NIMBY-ite to ask for a few more days of relative silence other than Sunday? I've lived in Torrance since 1969 and I hope to live here into my retirement (still many years away), it's always been a terrific place to live and I hope it remains that way
