Dallas City Council Authorizes Upgrades at Love Field, Stays Silent on Resident Noise Complaints

The Dallas City Council was poised Wednesday to authorize expenditures at Dallas Love Field totaling about half a million dollars, but one of the items was deferred to April 12 — and elected officials are still not talking about the “unbearable” noise complaints that have been raised by neighbors for more than a year.

The city council approved a $248,921 contract with Urban Engineers Inc. to provide engineering services for parking lot pavement, grading, and drainage improvements, to correct existing deficiencies, and for bid phase and construction administration services at Dallas Love Field. 

A $249,000 architectural services contract for design and bid phase services for the Airport Emergency Operation Center was deferred because contract language needed ironing out, said Deputy City Manager Kim Tolbert. 

“In consultation with the city attorney’s office, we wanted to make sure we could complete that before the city council takes action,” Tolbert said. 

Residents who live near the airport and were hoping for a chance to hear from council members on their noise complaints didn’t get what they were looking for. 

Love Field Neighbors Fight ‘Unbearable’ Noise as City Council Ponders Lease Agreements

Noise at Love Field

Briarwood resident Kerri Lacher said nonstop aircraft noise became a new normal for her neighborhood when construction began on the Denton Runway in early 2021, shifting 100 percent usage to the Lemmon Avenue Runway. When runway construction was complete in June 2022, the noise never returned to pre-construction levels, Lacher said. 

“Now it’s nonstop noise all day and into the night,” she said. “I wear silicone earbuds in my ears to sleep if I go to bed prior to 11 p.m. and want to sleep past 6 a.m. when aircraft noise begins again every day.” 

Other residents from Bluffview, Love Field West, Elm Thicket, and Highland Park neighborhoods have said it’s impossible to work from home or have guests over because of the noise. Some have contemplated relocating. 

Lacher did an informal survey of about 100 neighbors, and 61 percent said airplane noise increased over the last three years. The noisiest time of day is between 6 and 10 a.m., according to her survey. 

There’s been no official statement from Love Field since CandysDirt.com dug into the matter in October. 

Mark Duebner quietly retired from his position as director of aviation in November, and Patrick Carreno assumed the role in an interim capacity. 

Through a spokeswoman, Carreno declined an interview with CandysDirt.com last month, saying an interview would be granted when a permanent director is named. 

Redistricting And The Campaign Trail

City officials will soon be reviewing lease agreements with various aircraft carriers and planning the best use of space at the city-owned airport six miles north of downtown Dallas. The current agreements expire in 2028.

A new redistricting map takes effect May 6, meaning some neighborhoods near Love Field will be represented by the District 6 council member rather than the District 13 representative. 

Lacher began attending meetings of a Love Field citizens’ action committee and already has reached out to District 6 Councilman Omar Narvaez, who also chairs the council’s Transportation Committee. 

Narvaez is being challenged in the May election by Tony Carrillo, Sidney Robles Martinez, and Monica R. Alonzo.  

Lacher and other residents have done their homework. They’re raising questions about whether the airlines that hold lease agreements are honoring their commitment to not fly internationally, per the 2006 Wright Amendment Reform Act. They’re also landing planes after 11 p.m., which Lacher said is a violation of the lease agreements. 

“While these infractions don’t explain all the increased noise, it makes me wonder what else is going on,” Lacher wrote in an email to Narvaez. “I have used a public access tracking system called Flight Tracker to identify aircraft noise and have noticed it is not only Southwest aircraft that I hear. There are all kinds of aircraft other than Southwest that fly over my neighborhood. Sometimes it’s big cargo-type aircraft that fly in the wee hours.”

The whole city benefits from easy access to a local airport, but the council should work with leaseholders to mitigate noise and infringement on the quality of life of the nearby neighborhoods, Lacher added. 

“The original agreements that support the airport should be modified more than every 30 years to ensure commercial profits don’t steamroll over neighborhoods, air quality, noise control, and other human-focused considerations,” she said. “The city council will have to do something about the complaints from the neighborhood, because there are a lot of complaints.”