San Diego Regional Airport Authority
Quieter Home Program

Program Summary:
Jones Payne serves the San Diego Quieter Home Program by providing design, management, historical and construction support services. Our growing program office in San Diego is currently staffed by six design, construction and management professionals. These professionals oversee our consultant team of architects, permit expediters, historic preservationists and mechanical, electrical and acoustic engineers.

Starting in 2007, Jones Payne joined the existing QHP program as one of two design teams in order to facilitate the Program’s goal of a 4-fold increase in the annual delivery of treated homes. QHP staff provides homeowner services and construction management and manages the two design teams. By the end of 2009, the Jones Payne Team will have delivered 757 units of design and 368 units of completed construction.

Single Family Homes:
The original construction dates for homes in the QHP program ranges from the late 1800’s to the 1980’s. As is typical in older homes, many additions and renovations have changed the homes and require careful consideration for acoustic treatment. Construction types include wood framed on concrete foundations with stucco exteriors and wood widows, brick veneer traditional homes with steel windows, and custom designed unique homes. Typical treatments to these residences will include: window and door replacement, insulation in attic spaces, new attic access panels and fireplace doors. In addition, the program will enlarge bedroom windows where necessary to meet current state egress codes.

The program also provides air conditioning. In the temperate San Diego climate, the majority of homes do not have air conditioning or appropriate ductwork. In order to make the sound insulation of the windows and doors effective, new ductwork and new air conditioning / heating systems are installed. Adding these systems to older homes presents many unique challenges and each home is designed separately while maintaining a program standard.

Historic Homes:
In historic preservation terms, the City of San Diego may have had a late start in residential growth as compared to many places in the United States, but once the Panama Canal was under construction in 1904, the City began a campaign to have the Navy base its Pacific Fleet in its harbor. The Balboa Park based Panama California Exposition of 1915 followed the Canal’s opening in 1914. The area west of Balboa Park was developed at this time and is dotted with late Victorian and early Craftsman style homes. The western most areas of this neighborhood, called Banker’s Hill, are in the Airport’s eastern noise contour.

On the western side of the Airport, the Loma Portal neighborhood constitutes another historically significant stage in the residential development of San Diego. As the US Naval presence grew in San Diego between the World Wars including the construction of the Naval Training Center, many of the prominent military and civilian professionals in the city moved into the newly defined area of Loma Portal. The majority of the parcels in this potential historic district were developed with custom or architect designed homes.

The Jones Payne Team with its Historic Preservation Consultant – Heritage Architects & Planners – reviews each property that is entering the program. The purpose of this review is to determine if a property is eligible for the National Register. If a property is determined to be potentially historic, it is reviewed for individual significance or its contribution to the character of a potential historic district.

Multi-Family Homes:
The diversity of the housing stock impacted by noise in San Diego is distinctly shown in the Banker’s Hill Neighborhood. This neighborhood is on a hill facing the San Diego harbor and its resident airport. With the prime landing approach for the airport directly above this elevated topography, multi-story housing is significantly impacted by noise. A block, which once had eight single-family Victorian homes is now occupied by a 25 unit condominium. Across the street is a mix of single-family homes, duplexes and triplexes. This mixture of housing types extends for blocks.

In 2008, the Quieter Home Program began to treat housing developments with more than 6 units. This constitutes a large section of the impacted housing in the noise contour. The housing includes condominiums and apartment complexes. Construction types include attached townhomes, two story apartment blocks and multi-story complexes. Construction materials and engineered systems vary widely including residential grade and commercial grade systems. Jones Payne assists QHP in developing treatment protocols within program standards for each of these types of buildings as they come into the program.

For more information contact Mr. James Clinnin at Jones Payne’s San Diego office at (619) 546-8672 or email him at jclinnin@jonespayne.com.

The Jones Payne Team explains treatments at a homeowner meeting.