"Homeowners near MSP may be offered low-rate loans"

Thursday, November 4, 2004

Homeowners near airport may be offered low-rate loans 
By Dan Wascoe
The Minneapolis (MN) Star Tribune 
  
  
Low-rate loans may be offered to homeowners who face copayments for future
insulation against jet noise near Minneapolis-St. Paul International
Airport.

A proposal to create such a loan program was recommended Wednesday by a
committee of the Metropolitan Airports Commission. The full commission will
vote on the idea Nov. 15, and details will be worked out later.

Wednesday's action was part of the next-to-last step in the commission's
revision of its decade-long noise-insulation program. The program so far has
provided nearly 7,700 houses with an array of free noise-buffering
improvements, from new furnaces and air conditioners to windows and doors to
roof-vent baffles.

The current program helps houses exposed to an average of 65 or more
decibels. The next round will offer the same improvements to 165 houses
exposed to that same level of noise. But it will offer only air-conditioning
to 3,594 houses subject to an average of 60 to 64 decibels.

Eligible homeowners in that less-noisy zone will be required to pay 10 to 50
percent of the cost of air-conditioning if they do not already have it.
Participation in the program is voluntary.

The loans would be offered through the nonprofit Center for Energy and
Environment, a Minneapolis organization that already helps administer the
commission's noise-insulation program.

Nigel Finney, deputy executive director of the commission, said the center's
experience would make administration easier for homeowners who otherwise
might have to shop around for loans. He said some banks were not interested
because the loans would be relatively small.

Commissioner Robert Mars said he wants the program and proposed interest
rates to be clear.

"The last thing we'd want is to be criticized for rates that are higher than
street rates," he said.

The agency already has been criticized by homeowners and city officials for
backing away from its previous program, which offered more insulation to
more homeowners.

In another revision Wednesday the commission panel agreed to include 451
multifamily units and the Trinity School in Bloomington in the insulation
program, adding about $12 million to the previous total of $35.5 million.
That compares with the agency's previous program cost estimate of $106
million.

Northwest Airlines strongly lobbied at local, state and national levels for
the reduction.

After the commission votes on the revised noise program, it will be sent to
the Federal Aviation Administration for approval. That process is likely to
take months.

Much of the program reflects changes triggered by the airport's new
north-south runway, which is to begin operations in October 2005. The number
of eligible homeowners was reduced by calculations estimating that more
flights by smaller, quieter planes will reduce total noise exposure. The
result was a shrinkage in noise contours around the airport -- map lines
showing which blocks are eligible for noise mitigation.

Homeowners can learn more about the insulation program by checking the
commission's Web site at www.macnoise.com/part150/sound_insulation/.


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