No one likes a noisy, smelly neighbor, and the people who moved in next to the airport are no exception.

Plane Truth

The Monterey Peninsula Airport is a minor annoyance at least to a large number of Peninsula area residents. With flight paths that route planes over residential neighborhoods in Pacific Grove, Monterey and Del Rey Oaks, the airport delivers a lot of noise to local neighborhoods in the form of low-flying aircraft.

But those who live right next to the airport bear the brunt of the burden, and residents in the Casanova-Oak Knoll neighborhood fear that their burden is about to become even heavier. The Monterey Peninsula Airport District Board of Directors is in the process of deciding whether to approve a proposal to build 21 light general aviation hangars on the northern edge of the airport perimeter--just across the street from a group of Casanova Street homes.

Neighbors'' concerns, along with the Northside Shelter Investors'' project--better known as the NSSI project--started some five years ago when 13 hangars were built just inside the airport fence at the end of Casanova. Residents are already peeved about that first phase of the development. They claim that they were given no notice of the airport''s intention to build the hangars.

But now developers Scott Naylor and Steve Shook have requested permission to go ahead with Phase II, which will nearly triple the number of hangars, all of them larger than the original 13. Apparently the need exists; according to Airport Assistant General Manager and Director of Public Safety Donn Trenner, 18 of the 21 new hangars are already spoken for, many by people who share one of the existing 13 hangars with someone else and want their own hangars.

But to airport neighbors it''s an unfair imposition at odds with the rules of an otherwise strict locality. Says nonplused Casanova resident Sandy Imlay, "The city fussed over my four-foot fence, but the airport can put up 60-by-60-foot hangars just across the street from my house...50 feet from my door."

Residents are concerned that the new hangars will not only bring more aircraft noise and fuel odors to their neighborhood, but also noise from increased car and truck traffic going to and from the hangar facility. They''re are also worried that small private jets--which are often noisier than large commercial craft--might be stored there.

That could happen. "We''re not inviting [jets] but we''re not restricting [them] either," says Naylor, who with Shook manages the hangars. Anyway, he says, the site doesn''t have the ground equipment required to handle jets, so it''s unlikely someone would want to store a jet there. Naylor also notes with frustration that residents have turned down his invitations to tour the existing hangars and get a first-hand look at what''s in them.

For their part, airport board members have yet to be convinced that Phase II of the hangar project will significantly impact the Casanova neighborhood. Says boardmember Tex Irwin, aircraft storage is one of the least invasive uses of the Northside land. "I can''t stress it enough," he says. "This is a low-impact project for the neighborhood."

Irwin says the people who store their planes at the Northside are there because planes are their hobby. While some are at their hangars once a week, he says, most go only once a month or so.

Trenner says that Naylor and Shook considered two alternative sites for the new hangars. Each is further from residential areas than the Northside site, but each would require new paving and other development to be ready for aviation use. The Northside area, explains Trenner, is already used for aviation purposes. Trenner also says he thinks the hangars might act as a noise barrier for the neighborhood.

Irwin, however, says that the board and staff have not considered alternative sites, even an alternative site suggested by Casanova neighborhood residents, because the developers have "already gone to the expense of installing underground power" at the existing site.

Irwin''s enthusiastic defense of the project is one of the things that bothers residents. According to Naylor, Irwin''s wife does the books for the NSSI project, and Irwin himself, who builds custom windows and doors, has done business with Naylor''s construction company. Irwin also rents one of the existing 13 hangars. "[Irwin]''s a good friend of mine and Steve''s," says Naylor. "Heidi [Irwin''s wife] has been a good family friend for a long time."

Residents, as well as boardmember Patricia Faul, believe that Irwin should recuse himself not only from voting on the project, but also from any discussion of it. Irwin, who told the Weekly that his wife "used to work" for Shook and Naylor, says he has yet to decide if he will vote on the project.

Airport staff are currently in the midst of reviewing the developers'' initial study of the potential impacts of the hangar project. Trenner expects the study to be released for public review within the next month. The results of the study and the airport board''s review of it will determine whether or not the developers are required to conduct a formal environmental impact review.

Casanova neighborhood residents have not said they will take legal action to force an environmental impact review if the board determines one is not needed. But their frustration level is palpable. Says Adrian Schueneman, who has lived across the street from the airport for 20 years, the jet fuel smell "has never been as intense as it has been recently." She also believes that noise levels have reached a new high, which seems to be supported by airport statistics: noise complaints during the first four months of this year are up 188 percent from the same period last year.

Says Imlay, "I don''t feel that it''s fair for them to move anything into our neighborhood. We''ve got a nice quiet neighborhood and we already put up with enough noise. They''ve got hundreds and hundreds of acres. Why do they have to come to our back yards?"

For more information on resident''s concerns about the airport, visit www.montereyairportnoise.com, a Website that was launched by a Del Rey Oaks resident just last week.