Welcome to the Tucsonans for Sound Solutions (TSS) website.

If we are for solutions, what, you may ask, is the problem?

Jet noise. The jets flying over the center of the City of Tucson to and from Davis- Monthan Air Force Base (DMAFB) are now creating too much noise to remain compatible with the residential areas surrounding the base. This has not always been the case; Tucson has simply grown up from a city with a military base on the outskirts to a sprawling metropolis surrounding a military base. With the jet noise problem becoming increasingly unacceptable (and projected to get worse), we need to find a solution that balances the needs of the base with those of the surrounding neighborhoods, the rest of the Tucson valley, and the natural environment that has come to define Tucson.

In the 15-DEC-2005 Tucson Citizen, C.T. Revere summarizes the situation in this opinion piece.

Since DMAFB is surrounded by development, care must be taken to mitigate encroachment -- either by DMAFB into the surrounding community or by the city into DMAFB's sphere of operations -- in order to ensure the longterm viability of both entities. While the latest round of BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) activity has left DMAFB unscathed, it is foolish to assume that we will remain so fortunate in the future. Yet, there are some who are not content to have maintained current activity and are lobbying Washington to move more military missions to Tucson (as indicated by a "white paper" expounding on the base's virtues that was developed by the DM50, a DMAFB booster group).

This need not be a bad thing. It is entirely possible to bring to DMAFB missions that do not cause increased noise over the Tucson valley (research, veterans' services, &c) and we strongly encourage City, State, and other government officials to diligently explore these possibilities.

However, we can not overemphasize the fact that the costs of any missions brought to DMAFB which increase noise over Tucson will, in the long term, outweigh any benefit those missions could bring in terms of quality of life, property values, and tourist attraction (among other factors); in addition to the surrounding neighborhoods, there are many municipal amenities and projects under the current DMAFB flight paths -- Reid Park Zoo, DeMeester Amphitheater, spring training games at Hi Corbett Field, Randolph Golf Course, the Rio Nuevo downtown revitalization project, the University of Arizona -- that will be even more negatively impacted if jet noise levels increase. Since these assets help define the vital mid-town area and Tucson valley, it seems malfeasant to risk compromising or losing them to a preventable problem.

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What is causing the jet noise problem?

Part of the problem is that there are more flights in and out of DMAFB going over the city. Another part of the problem is that DMAFB's "Operation Snowbird" program brings in visiting jets from other bases (both American and from other countries) to train under our sunny skies. This is problematic because these planes are generally louder than those assigned to DMAFB and may not be included in the noise measurement statistics that the base is required to keep and make publicly available.

These two factors could be easily eliminated if DMAFB was able to expand its operations to the southeast of the city and onto land that is now vacant or build an auxiliary runway closer to the Barry Goldwater bombing range in southwest Arizona. However, for reasons we are investigating, these obvious solutions are not being enacted.

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What is being done to solve the problem?

Citing the impending (2005) round of BRAC closures (now past), the State of Arizona, the City of Tucson, and the Air Force conducted a Joint Land Use Study (JLUS, pronounced "JAY-loos" or "JAY-luss") on military operations and how they affect and are affected by surrounding development and encroachment. Unfortunately, the JLUS appears to have problems, including a failure to follow its own guidelines. Nevertheless, with JLUS in hand the City of Tucson then enacted an Airport Environs Zone (AEZ) zoning overlay which would affect land southeast of DMAFB and neighborhoods northwest of the base in order to "send a message to Washington that we are serious about DM". (Note that this is a zoning overlay: because it is not a zoning change per se, affected homeowners can not seek remedy for lost property values using municipal laws which address downzoning.) The purpose of the AEZ zoning overlay was ostensibly to protect DMAFB from encroachment by restricting how property near the base is used; however, in this the AEZ has failed. Furthermore, despite DMAFB's having dodged the BRAC bullet, neighborhoods northwest of the base are still saddled with the AEZ and its effects.

To address the grievous wrongs perpetuated by the JLUS and AEZ, representatives of affected neighborhoods are in discussions with our elected officials and other Tucson stakeholders to see what kind of solutions can be explored. Now that the 2005 round of BRAC round has come and gone, it is hoped that our elected officials will be more amenable to discussing and solving these problems.

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What can you do to get involved?

Please visit our contacts page for names and addresses of local and state representatives and others who should hear of your concerns and our actions page for upcoming activities related to this topic.

Please take a moment to browse the topics on the left, especially the history and research pages to see what has been happening in the past and how citizens can take steps to better protect themselves in the future.

If you have any questions, concerns, or links to other research, plz don't hesitate to contact us.

Thank you for your interest in TSS.