| 1 | 1 | | HOUSE . . . . . . . . No. 4838 |
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| 2 | 2 | | The Commonwealth of Massachusetts |
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| 3 | 3 | | ________________________________________ |
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| 4 | 4 | | HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, July 10, 2024. |
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| 5 | 5 | | The committee on Transportation, to whom was referred the joint |
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| 6 | 6 | | petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 3358) of Sally P. Kerans, Joan |
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| 7 | 7 | | B. Lovely and Jerald A. Parisella relative to airplane noise data collection, |
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| 8 | 8 | | reports recommending that the accompanying bill (House, No. 4838) |
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| 9 | 9 | | ought to pass. |
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| 10 | 10 | | For the committee, |
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| 11 | 11 | | WILLIAM M. STRAUS. 1 of 3 |
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| 12 | 12 | | FILED ON: 7/1/2024 |
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| 13 | 13 | | HOUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 4838 |
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| 14 | 14 | | The Commonwealth of Massachusetts |
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| 15 | 15 | | _______________ |
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| 16 | 16 | | In the One Hundred and Ninety-Third General Court |
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| 17 | 17 | | (2023-2024) |
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| 18 | 18 | | _______________ |
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| 19 | 19 | | An Act relative to airplane noise data collection and Good Neighbor Policy. |
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| 20 | 20 | | Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority |
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| 21 | 21 | | of the same, as follows: |
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| 22 | 22 | | 1 SECTION 1. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary the |
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| 23 | 23 | | 2Massachusetts Aeronautics Division (“The Division”) shall collect and post annually on its |
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| 24 | 24 | | 3website all noise reports and complaints made to Beverly Regional Airport (BVY) between April |
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| 25 | 25 | | 41 and October 1. |
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| 26 | 26 | | 5 For the purposes of this section, “noise complaint” shall refer to any complaint or report |
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| 27 | 27 | | 6of excessive noise and shall include the day, date and hour of the week it occurred made via |
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| 28 | 28 | | 7airport website, App, telephone, voicemail, email, written letter or in-person visit to the Airport |
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| 29 | 29 | | 8or to a Commissioner by any resident. |
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| 30 | 30 | | 9 This data shall be collected by The Division no later than 14 days following the end of |
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| 31 | 31 | | 10each month and posted in a readily accessible section of the Division’s public website no later |
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| 32 | 32 | | 11than 20 days following the end each month. The data shall be posted and shall remain on the |
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| 33 | 33 | | 12website in perpetuity. 2 of 3 |
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| 34 | 34 | | 13 SECTION 2. The Division shall collect from the BVY Tower the number and time of |
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| 35 | 35 | | 14day of all so-called “Touch and Go” operations between April 1 and October 1. This data shall |
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| 36 | 36 | | 15be collected no later than 14 days following the end of each month and shall be posted in a |
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| 37 | 37 | | 16readily accessible section of the BVY public website no later than 20 days following the end |
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| 38 | 38 | | 17each month and shall remain on the website in perpetuity. |
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| 39 | 39 | | 18 The Administrator of The Division shall share all noise data collected with the House and |
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| 40 | 40 | | 19Senate Chairs of the Joint Committee on Transportation and with the Secretary of Transportation |
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| 41 | 41 | | 20by December 31 of each year. |
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| 42 | 42 | | 21 SECTION 3. At the request of at least two commissioners of the BVY Regional |
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| 43 | 43 | | 22Airport, the Airport Commission shall convene a public meeting devoted to noise reports at |
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| 44 | 44 | | 23which members of the public may ask questions of Commission Members and the Airport |
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| 45 | 45 | | 24Manager, who shall, to the best of their ability, answer the questions. |
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| 46 | 46 | | 25 SECTION 4. It shall be the responsibility of The Division to provide annually to the |
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| 47 | 47 | | 26BVY Airport Manager and Commissioners guidance in the development, implementation and |
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| 48 | 48 | | 27oversight of a policy, commonly referred to as Good Neighbor or Fly Neighborly policy, |
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| 49 | 49 | | 28designed to facilitate an understanding among flight school owners, flight school instructors and |
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| 50 | 50 | | 29student pilots and all pilots of the airport of the noise impact of “Touch and Go” operations on |
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| 51 | 51 | | 30neighbors within three miles of runways. Said Good Neighbor policy guidance shall include but |
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| 52 | 52 | | 31not be limited to providing airports with a sample written policy, providing a written copy of the |
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| 53 | 53 | | 32policy to be given to all student pilots and pilots to be posted visibly in several locations, |
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| 54 | 54 | | 33including pilot areas, suggested steps for informing all airport tenants of the policy, and 3 of 3 |
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| 55 | 55 | | 34providing a social media toolkit for publicizing said policy to all airport tenants, pilots, student |
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| 56 | 56 | | 35pilots and Commissioners. |
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| 57 | 57 | | 36 SECTION 5. Each applicant for a badge at BVY shall submit with their application a |
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| 58 | 58 | | 37written attestation that they have read the Good Neighbor Policy for that Airport and will abide |
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| 59 | 59 | | 38by said policy. |
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| 60 | 60 | | 39 This act shall take effect on January 1, 2026. |
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