Having lost their battle to stop the runway expansion at FLL, Dania Beach homeowners now must decide whether to take cash assistance or move.
At the end of the cul-de-sac, the weathered sign in the yard has a simple message: No Runway Expansion.
“It’s one of the last ones left in the neighborhood,” said Rae Sandler, a Dania Beach resident who lives near Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and is president of the Melaleuca Gardens Homeowners Association.
After more than 18 years of fighting the expansion of the south runway at the airport, it’s all over — except for making one last choice.
This past week, the Dania Beach City Commission unanimously accepted a settlement deal that would allow affected homeowners to sign up for sales assistance that may take years, accept a payoff in exchange for waiving their right to sue, or accept monetary assistance to soundproof their homes.
For Sandler, fighting the expansion project has been a family tradition. Her mother, Beulah Lair, also lives in Melaleuca Gardens, a mostly waterfront community on Griffin Road just across from the future runway. Less than a quarter of a mile will separate the homes from the runway.
Lair, 87, put up the “No Runway Expansion” sign two decades ago.
“They had really been fighting the airport for 20 years and my mother bought her home 21 years ago. That’s how she got involved,” Sandler said. “She was a real spitfire. She attended every meeting, she would rally the troops. She would literally knock on people’s door until they came to the door, and then tell them they had to be at that meeting.”
But a stroke has kept Lair from the most recent battles.
Sandler took up the fight soon after her mother began her initial crusade back in the 1990s. In 2010, she traveled to Washington, D.C. to witness a pivotal appeal court ruling. The ruling found in favor of the Federal Aviation Administration and Broward County, disappointing Dania Beach and its homeowners.
Dania Beach had been fighting with Broward County in court over the runway since 1993. The city signed an interlocal agreement in 1995 that required the county to consult with the city before making decisions involving noise mitigation and placed operational restrictions on the airport.
Over the years, Dania Beach’s main tactic had been to challenge the environmental impact statements generated by Broward County. After that tactic hit a dead end in December 2010, the city then began considering a payout deal from the County Commission and the FAA.
All of this — the lawsuits, the haggling over every detail from noise levels to financial compensation — seems so far removed from the neighborhood Sandler fell in love with when she bought her home on Northwest Seventh Avenue Street in 1978.
“I moved [to Dania Beach] because it was a quiet little town,” Sandler said. “It was very quiet, like a small town feel. The city hasn’t changed, but Broward County has. It’s overdeveloped. So now we feel the crunch here.”
The $790 million runway, 65 feet above current ground level and parallel to Griffin Road, is scheduled to be open for big commercial jets in 2014. It is expected to increase the number of take-offs and landings that can occur at the airport, thereby bolstering the local economy.
Not all Dania Beach residents will be eligible for compensation. The FAA used a computer model to determine the average amount of noise that would occur at various points over a 24-hour period and used the result to determine which residents will get benefits.
Those who live in areas that will receive over 65 decibels of noise, on average, over a 24-hour period are eligible for the payoff and the sales assistance. This option is available for about 857 homes.
Those who live in slightly less-noisy areas — about 1,700 homes — are eligible for soundproofing at the cost of $80,000. This includes approximately 1,700 homeowners.
The plan is complicated enough that next-door neighbors are receiving different benefit options.
“Garbage in, garbage out,” said Dania Beach Commissioner Anne Castro. “They put in data on the front end that says here are the anticipated flights, kind of aircraft, time of day, whatever other variables they have. Then, based on that information, it generates what it believes those aircrafts will create noise-wise.”
According to the FAA website, 65 decibels is roughly equal to an average conversation or the low hum of street traffic. A jet engine that is near a person can measure at anywhere from 130 to 160 decibels — loud enough to rupture an eardrum.
Most of the homes in question belong to middle-class families who have embraced an outdoor lifestyle: swimming, gardening, and boating.
Among them, Richard and Betty Sokol.
Their home is on Perimeter Road, which runs directly across from the airport, so the Sokols are eligible for the maximum benefits.
Richard Sokel, 78, said moving is out of the question.
“I’m not going nowhere,” he said. “I got my pool. I can’t build my house anywhere else.”
The Sokols have lived in their current home since 1999 and have extensively renovated it. They have redone the pool and the back deck, added flowers and a palm tree, repainted the whole house, and installed French doors.
Sokol said he is considering soundproofing his home. But that’s hardly compensation for what he expects to lose.
“I’m not an inside person,” Sokol said. “I’m going to have to live with it if I go outside. When you’re talking to people, you can’t hear them. You say wait a minute, wait a minute until this plane goes by. Then you can talk to me."
Sandler, as well, said she will stay put. Although her neighbors across the street have been deemed eligible for the maximum, because her home is just outside the area defined to be most impacted by the noise and other runway issues, she qualifies only for soundproofing.
Sandler said she won’t take the money. It comes with too high a price.
“You have to sign over too much of your rights,” Sandler said. “You’re giving up your right to sue.”
Christopher Johnston, a commercial airline pilot, moved to Dania Beach in 2006.
“It’s a tropical paradise,” Johnston said. “I love the people, the climate.”
Like Sandler, Johnston is eligible only for soundproofing assistance. But he wants to experience firsthand the noise and other impacts of the runway expansion before making his decision to stay or move.
“I will stay in the property a year or two to see if it’s tolerable,” he said. “If it’s tolerable, sure I’ll stay. It’s a nice area. It’s nice and convenient to the Intracoastal Waterway. Even though I don’t have a boat, it’s hard to replace ocean-access property.”
Indeed, Johnston’s biggest concern isn’t the settlement, but the lack of a timeline for soundproofing the homes.
“I would like to see them held to a specific time-frame for soundproofing,” he said. “It’s just a verbal agreement now to do 400 homes a year. I don’t know what their purpose is, either dangling a carrot or giving false hope to some of these people.”
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