Donald Trump has become embroiled in a row with his Florida neighbors over flight noise, after aircraft were diverted away from Mar-a-Lago.
In late October, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that planes would be diverted away from the president’s Florida residence, even when he is not there. Previously, they had been allowed to fly over, as long as Mr Trump was not home. Instead, planes will be diverted over Palm Beach, where the average home costs more than $2m, and nearby West Palm Beach.
Feelings are running high among the approximately 130,000 people who are now under the noisy flight path. Property values have dropped by approximately 20 per cent, according to Don Todorich, a local estate agent. “They do not want the flight path changed because they didn’t buy in the flight path when they purchased their home. And now they’re in a flight path that was never a flight path before. That’s the point,” Mr Todorich told The Telegraph.
The new arrangements mean that residents have to put up with aircraft noise from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. “You can have flights over your house every five minutes,” Nancy Pullum, chairman of the citizens’ committee on airport noise, told The Telegraph. “People were surprised and alarmed and continued to be, because it just came out of the blue. There was no conversation, no anything.”
While people accepted the importance of keeping the president safe, they could not cope with the revised flight path whether or not he was in Mar-a-Lago. Given the tropical climate, people in the area lived much of their lives outdoors, unlike other parts of the country. But aircraft noise made pleasures like enjoying their swimming pools or gardening impossible.
The noise had blighted not only opulent Palm Beach, but the historic neighborhoods in West Palm Beach, Ms Pullum explained. Residents who had spent a lot of money to buy homes away from the flight path now found themselves beneath it.
Mar-a-Lago was built by Marjorie Merriweather Post, a businesswoman, socialite and philanthropist, in 1926. In her will, the 58-bedroom mansion was bequeathed to the federal government as a summer White House. It was sold off by Washington because of the cost of maintenance and bought by Mr Trump for $8m in 1985.
Washington said the extra security measures were needed. “In order to ensure the highest levels of safety and security for the president, the US Secret Service requested the FAA institute additional temporary flight restrictions over Mar-a-Lago,” a Secret Service spokesman told The Telegraph. “We recognize that these changes could have an impact on the public and appreciate the Palm Beach community’s understanding as we work to keep the president safe.”
It is not only in Florida that Mr Trump has run into trouble with his neighbors. In 2006, shortly after buying 1,400 acres of land for a new golf course in Aberdeenshire, he objected to plans for an offshore wind farm. Mr Trump took his complaint to Alex Salmond, the Scottish first minister at the time, saying: “I want to see the ocean, I do not want to see windmills.” His objections were rebuffed and on his recent visit to the UK, he described the turbines as “some of the ugliest you have ever seen”.
David Millward is the U.S. correspondent for The Telegraph
