Anchorage Daily News

PALMER - The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly on Tuesday adopted changes to borough noise laws that made a Wasilla church and Palmer residents happy but left one group of model plane fliers fearing they might have to find a new place to fly.

"If we're creating a general public nuisance for the average individual, then we need to go somewhere else," said Tom Simes, president of the Alaska Radio Control Society. The society bills itself as the state's oldest radio-controlled model airplane group.

"We're upset that the law was so specifically targeted at our group," he said.

Borough officials, however, said Thursday the group's concerns might be premature. The noise from the club's planes may not violate the new standards, said borough planner Emerson Krueger.

The borough noise law, created in 2004, was aimed at blocking amplified sound. If the garage band down the street was practicing with its amps cranked to 10, this law gave people the right to file a complaint. It also addressed vibration, an issue that triggered complaints from folks on a bluff above a bowling alley/nightclub near Wasilla in 2004. The nightclub portion of the operation has since been shut down.

But the law relied on people's perceptions of vibrations rather than any measurable standard, which generated complaints it was too subjective, Krueger said.

A Wasilla church, for example, was fined because neighbors complained about vibration from its full-band worship services.

Church on the Rock pastor Dave Pepper said it was impossible to tone down the services without knowing what standard they needed to reach.

Krueger said his job was to find a way to make the law measurable, which he did by adding an acceptable range for low-frequency noise like the thumping bass beats that so bothered neighbors about the nightclub.

He was also asked to address complaints from some Palmer-area residents who said they were disturbed by noise from radio-controlled airplanes using a grassy field north of the city.

Roger Bouwens lives off Palmer-Fishhook Road north of the 50-acre Moffitt Field that Simes and other members of his group lease to fly planes. He said noise from the field drove him into his house during the summer.

"I strongly support an individual's right to participate in any activity they choose," except when that activity impacts other people, Bouwens told the Assembly.

Jerry Baker, a Beylund Loop resident, said airfield noise "disrupts normal living," like sleeping in on the weekend or chatting with a neighbor in her garden.

"It's like living next to a huge commune of chain saws," Baker said. "We need our peace and quiet."'Colorful but inaccurate'

Simes called Baker's assessment of the airfield noise "colorful but inaccurate." He said the group monitors noise at Moffitt field, which they've leased since 1996. Planes have to fly under 96 decibels, he said, which is close to the amount of sound produced by a chain saw.

But he noted that's measured on the airstrip, not from neighboring properties. In addition to those baseline measurements, he said the group avoids acrobatics that make a lot of noise.

"It's gotten to the point where, 'How quiet can I make this airplane,' is a point of pride," he said.

Still, with the new law based on measurements of 10 to 15 minutes of ambient sound, Simes said he's concerned. After all, it's a grassy field, set amid farmland.

"You could hear a pin drop out there most of the time," Simes said.

Krueger, however, said he thinks the group has little to worry about. Acoustical testing at the field last summer in preparation for the law change showed most of the smaller planes at Moffitt Field fell into the acceptable range, he said. He won't know for sure until new measurements are taken this year, he said.

"It looks highly probable that most of the small planes are going to be able to keep flying," Krueger said.

Simes said the group will do everything it can to keep in compliance with the new law. The field is precious to its members, some of whom have moved to Palmer simply to be closer to it, he said.

"This is of vital importance to the club," Simes said.

Find Daily News reporter Rindi White online at www.adn.com/contact/rwhite or call 352-6709.

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