Saturday, March 8, 2014

Fed Up With Airport Noise: Appeal Your Real Estate Taxes

This is worth the effort:

Appeal your real estate taxes based on the amount of noise pollution you have to endure since the O'Hare expansion.

Chicago residents fed-up with new plane noise from O’Hare Airport said Friday they are appealing their property taxes based on it — and hope to encourage others to do the same.

Members of the Fair Allocation in Runways coalition revealed the latest anti-noise-pollution strategy during a meeting of the O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission.
FAIR member and Sauganash resident Diane Yost said the planes that now stream over her house like a “string of pearls” have lowered her property’s value, perhaps as much as 10 to 15 percent, so her property taxes should go down, too.
 
“It’s prima facie evidence that your house values go down [based on airplane noise],” said Yost, a 39th Ward resident. A “very desirable swath of homes” on the city’s Northwest Side have been impacted by a new flight runway pattern launched in October yet are not eligible for O’Hare sound insulation, she said.
 
Yost said she filed an appeal of her property taxes by arguing that the new east-to-west flight flow has lowered her home’s property value by creating plane noise that didn’t exist when she purchased her house. She has yet to receive a ruling from the Cook County Assessor’s Office, she said.
FAIR member Judie Simpson, a North Park resident, asked the O’Hare Noise Compatibility Commission to resume publishing a list of each high-noise incident picked up by O’Hare noise monitors so residents can use the data to bolster their appeals.
 
Members said FAIR is considering briefing community groups on how to file property tax appeals based on new O’Hare noise -- a move that could hit the city in its pocketbook. FAIR also has sent Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel two sets of letters asking for a meeting about the “virtual highway of airplanes” over the Northwest Side, but has yet to hear back from him, members said.
The switch to mostly parallel runways should reduce delays in all kinds of weather and increase flight capacity, city officials have said. However, FAIR contends it has resulted in lopsided runway use, with 100 percent of night arrivals expected to be absorbed by one runway 70 percent of the year.
During Friday’s Noise Commission meeting, city officials revealed that O’Hare noise complaints continue to rise since the most recent phase of the O’Hare Modernization Program was completed in October. January 2014 complaints hit 6,321 – a new monthly record. The January 2014 total is up more than fourfold from January 2013.
 
Chicago Department of Aviation officials noted that the number of people complaining in January -- 462 -- is down from the 642 who beefed in December. About two-thirds of all complaints came from just eight homes, they said.
 
However, Aviation officials did not mention that the number of complainants in Chicago increased by 18 percent between December and January, with the bulk concentrated in the 41st, 39th, 45th wards. It’s beefs from suburban homes that are dropping.
Read the entire article in today's Sun-times.  Article written by Rosalind Rossi
 
 
 
 


13 comments:

  1. Will be looking for the ruling on the tax appeal. This could be what prompts action by the city.

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  2. Hit'em in the pocketbook, the only thing that matters

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  3. Can use the tax appeal money to noise proof the house.

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  4. File a noise report on-line: https://servicerequest.cityofchicago.org/web_intake_chic/Controller?op=csrform&restrict_loc=Y&invSRType=AVN

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    1. I looked for a noise complaint link on the alderman's website and it isn't there. I would think if she was really serious about doing something about the noise she would encourage people to file complaints.

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  5. I'm becoming deaf from the noise and sleep deprived from being woken up at night from the noise and rattling walls. Thanks for posting the noise complaint website. I sent mine in for one day, but could have entered 150 days and 600 separate events.

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  6. Why is the alderman not doing anything?

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  7. Goes to show you how important those complaints are... I jot down the times that my home rumbles, and enter them in end of day. I guarantee my home is one of the 8 the paper notated, but rest assured, NONE of these complaints are fabricated. FAA and city hall can correspond them to specific flights if they so choose.

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  8. The alder girl does not have the skill to represent the 41st ward. She does know how to make a deli sandwich though. Keep voting democratic fools, and you'll hear more planes above your depreciated house while berries hires another dozen family members.

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  9. we must unite as a group and fight them planes flying continuously from 4:30 am to 1 am we need to collect hard data # of planes and the noise level the produce so far complaints are too general...this has really gotten out of hand why are they just using one runway the traffic burden should be shared among everybody a 360 degree landing pattern not just a stright line over our community. dont expect the Alderman to do anything...we need to take action as a group

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  10. How about the Pratt Ave runway that was built in 2008? It takes nearly all the incoming flights during the day. And then they are planning on opening another runway right next to it in 2020? Good bye back yard! Hello Burbs!

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  11. And to think, it gets worse!

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-ohare-flight-patterns-changing-to-reduce-risk-of-collisions-20140502,0,5194238.story

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