Norwood Airport Master Plan And Jet Noise Disputes-September 5, 1974

After a delay of nearly two years, the Norwood Airport Commission has voted to finalize its long-awaited master plan originally drawn up in October 1972, aiming to terminate its participation in the federally funded project and conclude contractual obligations with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and consulting firm Fay, Spofford & Thorndike.

While the board initially weighed simply rejecting or filing the report, member Pauline M. Grasso and FAA representative Vincent A. Scarano successfully urged the commission to review the document with state and federal officials to better align it with the commission’s no-growth orientation. The board voted unanimously to seek an October 16 meeting with officials from the FAA, the Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission (MAC), and the engineering consultants. Anticipated improvements include relocating the east-west runway threshold to direct landing aircraft 1,000 feet further up the tarmac—a change requiring Town Meeting approval.

Controversial Instrument Landing System Rejected

During the same meeting, the airport commission firmly rebuffed a proposal from MAC Director Crocker Snow offering to turn over existing state-owned landing equipment currently used at the airport to the town. The commission voted to reject the MAC offer, noting that the state cannot afford the $10,000 annual maintenance cost past November.

Furthermore, the board refused to reconsider its staunch opposition to installing an Instrument Landing System (ILS). Members of the Norwood Airport Association, led by former state aviation official Malcolm Woronoff, argued that the ILS would improve safety by keeping incoming aircraft higher during approaches. However, commission chairman William F. Collins and other opponents contended that the ILS would encourage heavier bad-weather air traffic and shift an unfair financial burden onto local taxpayers. Airport manager Arnold Stymest noted that the FAA may now choose to offer the federally funded $250,000 system to an alternative airport.

In additional actions, the commission voted to ask congressional representatives to resolve local jet-noise restrictions, criticizing the FAA and MAC for overriding local bans on noisy commercial aircraft exceeding federally prescribed noise limits. The board also formally approved raising the airport’s traffic pattern minimum altitude to 1,000 feet and approved a comprehensive noise level study around the airport to be conducted directly by the FAA.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger