Under the Stairs, a Potential Flight Hazard Exists

[question everything]

Under the Stairs, a Potential Flight Hazard Exists
(San Diego) Mayor Jerry Sanders has required the most minor home improvement projects to prove they aren't obstacles to nearby aircraft in the wake of the Sunroad controversy.
By EVAN McLAUGHLIN Voice Staff Writer

Thursday, Sept. 6, 2007 | Pull into Jaalin Cheng's driveway, walk down two flights of stairs and peer to your right underneath the patio of his Mission Hills home. By Christmastime, Cheng hopes the shady, open-air area there will become a home study. But to encapsulate the space beneath his Douglas fir deck and to erect a small retaining wall under the home's stairs, Cheng had to first gain approval from an unlikely agency -- the Federal Aviation Administration.

Under new city of San Diego rules, the FAA will have to affirm that Cheng's nearly subterranean project will not pose a potential threat to the 737s, charter jets and cargo planes that take off and land at Lindbergh Field more than a mile away.

(snip)

Now, Sanders is forcing homeowners and developers of all projects standing a certain height above and distance from local airports to notify the FAA before they can obtain building permits from the city of San Diego. Under the rule, developers of construction projects that poke above a virtual diagonal line running from the base of local runways to points that are 20,000 feet away and 200 feet high would have to notify the FAA. All buildings 200 feet above the ground are also supposed to file. Because Cheng's home rests 246 feet above the airport on a slope in Mission Hills, he is forced to file because his project technically falls above the FAA's 200 foot limit.

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http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2007/09/06/government/665faa090607.txt

[XOKCowboy]

1. Flying into San Diego can be pretty scary...

It's the only airport I've ever had a pilot overshoot the runway and hit the power on final approach. I'm sorry but that part of San Diego is very crowded and they DO have an airport just outside downtown. Very convenient to travelers but it's going to affect residents.

[seriousstan]

2. Big whoop, he needs a permit.

[Bluebear]

3. City attorney: the new rule was a small sacrifice in order to make sure developments comply with FAA

[RC]

4. Asinine, totally asinine.

It is class action law suit time.