Residents of West Kendall have endured the constant buzzing of planes flying over their homes for years, and last Thursday they decided to make their voices heard.
According to the blog Political Cortadito, the Kendall Federation of Homeowners Associations (KFHA) and the Miami-Dade Aviation Department held a community meeting regarding air noise at the Kendall Village Civic Pavilion to address the complaints accumulated due to the operations of Miami Executive Airport.
Michael Rosenberg, president of the KFHA, revealed that complaint calls have increased compared to previous years, and the issue has persisted since at least 2012, when residents of SW 120th Street and the surrounding areas of 137th Avenue were already questioning the airport's impact on their neighborhoods.
The practice that irritates residents the most is the so-called "touch-and-go": trainee pilots landing, taking off, and repeatedly circling over densely populated residential areas, again and again, without pause.
"This airport noise has been happening for years," said Rosenberg. "I would like to see if we can create a committee with the community and the airport to hold regular meetings and discuss how the issue is being addressed."
The community leader was straightforward in calling on his neighbors: "We may not have this opportunity for a long time. In short: if you hear the planes, you'd better show up, or you might be listening to that noise for the rest of your life."
What makes the protest more urgent is that the county is not halting the expansion of the airport; on the contrary. Just a week before the community meeting, the mayor of Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava, presided over the groundbreaking ceremony for the Ocean Aviation campus, a $67 million project backed by Kennedy Lewis Investment Management that will transform 40 acres of undeveloped land into up to 400,000 square feet of hangars, a premium terminal, and a fuel depot.
That is not the only approved expansion. In July, the commissioners gave the green light to a 25-year lease with MQ TMB Holdings for another aviation project with a minimum investment of seven million dollars. In September, the commission unanimously approved the expansion of KASE LLC, which increases its leased area from around ten to nearly 15 acres and includes two new hangars and an additional terminal.
Residents of Kendall point out that the county has not calculated how many additional flights these three combined expansions will generate or what impact they will have on the surrounding neighborhoods.
For them, the noise control mechanisms are insufficient. The airport is officially designated as noise-sensitive and has published noise reduction procedures, but the consultants hired by the county advised against installing permanent monitors in neighborhoods, claiming that they would not provide sufficiently reliable information. The acoustic contour maps were updated in 2023, although the averages they reflect do not capture the real impact of repetitive overflights.
The commissioner of District 11, Rob Gonzalez, wrote to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in August asking for a review of flight patterns, adjustments to schedules during the early and late hours of the day, a more equitable distribution of routes among various neighborhoods, and a reduction of traffic during times of religious worship.
In his letter, he pointed out that "a significant volume of air traffic is routed directly over densely populated residential properties, instead of using available approach and departure routes that would minimize exposure over housing."
The recent expansions of Miami Airport have sparked a broader debate about the balance between economic development and quality of life in South Florida.
Residents who wish to file a formal noise complaint can call the Aviation Noise Mitigation Office of the Miami-Dade Aviation Department at 305-876-7526.
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