Tucson Weekly: Mad Whirl (May 28

UMC Choppers Make Life Miserable For Hospital's Neighbors.
By Dave Devine
A QUESTION REMAINS when it comes to the chicken and the egg. But there's no doubt that the residential neighborhood north of the University Medical Center was there before the hospital.
Despite that, UMC-related conflicts ranging from hazardous-waste disposal to traffic concerns have continually plagued the nearby Jefferson Park neighborhood. The latest issue, in dispute since 1994, concerns helicopter flights.
For years hospital choppers used a ground-level landing pad to transport emergency patients. Nearby residents sometimes complained about the noise but were generally understanding.
Currents But then, a few years ago, the landing pad was moved onto the roof of a new building located at the north end of the UMC complex. Despite assurances by hospital and University of Arizona officials that the move would help diminish the noise in the neighborhood, it did just the opposite.
To compound the problem, UMC began using the new pad to base two helicopters whose flights were not directly related to the hospital. These new missions increased the number of monthly flights to 300--an increase of 60 percent.
After this jump in activity, Jefferson Park residents began complaining, loudly. The neighborhood was there first, residents pointed out, adding they didn't think it was fair to have to live with non-UMC related flights in addition to the emergency missions. They also demanded steps be taken to reduce the noise from all flights.
According to some Jefferson Park residents, the hospital's initial reaction was "screw 'em."
"They treated us like goldbrickers," one said recently. But after neighborhood association members talked to their state legislators, the two new helicopter operations were moved to other locations. Score one for the neighborhood.
That, however, didn't settle all the issues. The neighbors wanted written assurances the episode wouldn't be repeated. They also wanted noise mitigation for the remaining flights.
While they understood the need for emergency medical transportation, some of the hospital's neighbors felt UMC needed to do more.
ONE NEARBY RESIDENT describes the experience of a helicopter landing at the hospital as feeling as if your home is under siege for two or three minutes. Sound rattles around in your house and in your head, he said, and you never know when it will happen.
One recent night, helicopters came to the hospital at midnight, 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., each time jarring neighbors awake.
For the past four years, the Jefferson Park Neighborhood Association has been trying to reach an agreement with the hospital and UA over these flight issues. It's been very slow going, with neighbors charging that UMC officials seem to be counting on delay and procrastination to wear them down.
Jim Kluger, chair of the neighborhood association's helicopter committee, says there are four points they'd like hospital officials to agree to:

Limit the north side landing pad to hospital-related flights. If the other two helicopters are to return, Kluger believes a new landing pad should be built on the hospital's south side, away from the surrounding residential neighborhoods.

Written assurances that "fly-friendly" procedures now in place will continue. These practices have the helicopters approaching the hospital from the south over Campbell Avenue.

An agreement that if the homeowners want to sell, the UA will acquire the nine homes most affected by the noise on the south side of Lester Street. These properties have been in the UA's "owner-initiated purchase zone" for decades, and the UA already owns several buildings along the street.

Payment from the hospital and UA for noise mitigation to be installed in homes north of Lester Street. Kluger says property values in the area have plunged because of the noise.
After a long series of meetings, in early March UA and UMC officials agreed to prepare a memorandum of understanding addressing the four points. However, it was only recently that a draft document was delivered to the neighborhood association.
The draft agreement covers each of the association's points, but appears to address the neighborhood's concerns only with the first three. The agreement takes a different approach to the fourth point, calling for the City of Tucson to seek grants to pay for mitigation measures; and it doesn't promise that the work will ever be done. The reasoning behind this approach, according to UA officials, is that the city has access to noise-mitigation monies that the UA doesn't.
Neighborhood residents are meeting this week to review the draft proposal.

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