moving to madison (County Line: new home, neighborhood, buyer)

[dwoodetal]

big move to madison next month. yikes. after much research, i hope i made the right decision for my family in regards to schooling and safety. we bought a house near county line road and are thrilled. only concern is the airport just south of us. a few questions - is the sw area in madison considered okay? how busy is the airport? i think our new home might be directly on the flight path. are there any complaints about this. i know madison is growing and just can't imagine steering away from an airport that size. hoping for answers. regardless, i think madison will be a wonderful place to live. just pray my kids think so. wish us luck.

[Sarges Dad]

Originally Posted by dwoodetal

big move to madison next month. yikes. after much research, i hope i made the right decision for my family in regards to schooling and safety. we bought a house near county line road and are thrilled. only concern is the airport just south of us. a few questions - is the sw area in madison considered okay? how busy is the airport? i think our new home might be directly on the flight path. are there any complaints about this. i know madison is growing and just can't imagine steering away from an airport that size. hoping for answers. regardless, i think madison will be a wonderful place to live. just pray my kids think so. wish us luck.

The kids will like watching the planes go over. I use to live in the flight path about 3 miles north of 72. Never heard anyone complian.

[dwoodetal]

funny you should mention "3 miles north of 72"...we'll be living about 3 miles north of I-565. much closer. my kids will start recognizing the pilots w/in a month. i will have bought earplugs by then. does anyone live closer to, let's say, madison blvd. i am trying to get a feel for the air traffic and noise. thanks.

[friday13]

Originally Posted by dwoodetal

funny you should mention "3 miles north of 72"...we'll be living about 3 miles north of I-565. much closer. my kids will start recognizing the pilots w/in a month. i will have bought earplugs by then. does anyone live closer to, let's say, madison blvd. i am trying to get a feel for the air traffic and noise. thanks.

don't know about living that close to the airport, but to put in perspective, I was looking at a for-sale house off Eastview (&Slaughter), a very nice, quiet, birds-chirping neighborhood, when I hear the airplane, I look up and see the belly of the beast right over my head. It was huge and flying low. What I am saying is that whereas you can be sure about airplanes say 5 mile radius of the airport, all other Madison locations seem fair game, you only find out you have a problem (or the extent/noise level) after you move in. I'll make my next project finding flight/landing path maps for Hsv airport as they relate to our future purchase in Madison - unless the go-to-guy Charles lends a hand with the info sooner. TIA

[HB2HSV]

Originally Posted by dwoodetal

...we'll be living about 3 miles north of I-565. much closer. my kids will start recognizing the pilots w/in a month. i will have bought earplugs by then. does anyone live closer to, let's say, madison blvd. i am trying to get a feel for the air traffic and noise. thanks.

It sounds like a bit of buyer's remorse/ anxiety from what I am hearing. You should drive over and park there for an hour, say during lunch time and after work, to see if this truly bothers you. Make a mental list of why you like & made an offer to buy there in the first place. At the end, it is that needs to be happy with your purchase. Better find out now than after closing.

[djmaxwell]

Originally Posted by friday13

don't know about living that close to the airport, but to put in perspective, I was looking at a for-sale house off Eastview (&Slaughter), a very nice, quiet, birds-chirping neighborhood, when I hear the airplane, I look up and see the belly of the beast right over my head. It was huge and flying low. What I am saying is that whereas you can be sure about airplanes say 5 mile radius of the airport, all other Madison locations seem fair game, you only find out you have a problem (or the extent/noise level) after you move in. I'll make my next project finding flight/landing path maps for Hsv airport as they relate to our future purchase in Madison - unless the go-to-guy Charles lends a hand with the info sooner. TIA

I'm not Charles, but try this link:

Approach Plates

Enter the airport code HSV and you will get all of the approach and departure info for the airport.

[julilg]

Originally Posted by dwoodetal

big move to madison next month. yikes. after much research, i hope i made the right decision for my family in regards to schooling and safety. we bought a house near county line road and are thrilled. only concern is the airport just south of us. a few questions - is the sw area in madison considered okay? how busy is the airport? i think our new home might be directly on the flight path. are there any complaints about this. i know madison is growing and just can't imagine steering away from an airport that size. hoping for answers. regardless, i think madison will be a wonderful place to live. just pray my kids think so. wish us luck.

Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama ! Where are you coming from?

Of course I don't know your tolerance level,... but I dare say since you have children I doubt that you'll regret the move to Madison. I moved here 16 years ago with a 3 & 4 year old. They are products of Madison (a Madison with less to offer back then than now) and both are in college - on academic scholarships ! They're naturally pretty bright, but in many other communities they would not have had the benefit of Madison Schools' advanced options and could just as easily fallen victim to "dumbing down".

Additionally, there is an abundance of affordable recreational activities for children and familes and more on the way, such as the new Y. I happen to believe it takes a community to raise a child and Madison provided exactly what I hoped for for my children.

Regarding the airport, for the most part all of Madison is in a flight path, which changes subject to weather patterns. I live directly under the normal landing path and there have been times I can actually see plane's lights shining into my upstairs window even before I hear it. Thanks in part to decent insulation / quality construction. It's not a huge, busy airport (yet) and they rarely have flights between about 9 PM and 6 AM. Personally, I have never heard of anyone bothered by the airport.

The most common complaint I hear about Madison is that "new money" has created a snobbish community, too many cliches, ... Of course that's not coming from the ~75% of Madison's population which consitututes the so called new money crowd - your future neighbors. It's a statewide perception, my kids tell me their college peers refer to BJHS as "Snob Jones".

Also I caution newcomers to realize nearly everyone is somewhat new, so don't expect to always be singled out for a special welcome; at church, school, meetings, clubs,.... Take the initiative to immerse yourself and seek what interests you.

WELCOME !

[Mawoods]

We enjoyed living in Madison 2 years ago but did not like the planes. We too could see the belly and sometimes I felt I should wave those big planes were so low. These were not the commercial planes but the ones that they practice touch and go with. HUGE and when they were coming and going for a time period of several hours and low the whole house shook and our housecat cowered. We lived off Mill Road. Now on the other hand we had neighbors who were former pilots and they loved the whole thing. Just your own perspective I guess.

[hgc]

I bought a piece of land just off County Line Road and built a gymnastics center there a couple of years ago. We see a lot of planes (especially "touch 'n' go" practice on the weekends) but I haven't found the noise a problem. County Line Road is one of the least congested roads in the area, which I think is a big plus.

I think you will love Madison - it's a great area!

[skinem]

I grew up on air force bases until I was about 12...you get so used to the planes that you don't hear them after awhile. We'd have guests stay with us and get up in the morning asking "How in the world do you sleep?" Of course, we hadn't heard a thing...

Hope Madison is good for you! It is for a lot of people.