4 Hearings Set on Burbank Airport Noise Study

The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority will hold four public hearings next week to update local residents on the status of a federal study calling for an overnight noise curfew at the east San Fernando Valley airport, officials said Friday.

The three-year, $4-million study will examine a proposed 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew at Burbank Airport. The issue is central to the question of whether the airport authority should build a new terminal.

A final version of the review will be presented to the Federal Aviation Administration for approval sometime during the next year, said Burbank Airport spokesman Victor Gill.

The public sessions begin at 7 p.m. and will be held Monday at the Burbank Airport Hilton, Tuesday at Beverly Garland’s Holiday Inn in North Hollywood, Wednesday at Roscoe Elementary School in Sun Valley and Thursday at the Glendale Hilton.

Airport officials said they had been sidetracked from the study by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which forced changes in security. Because of those changes, airport officials have suspended plans for a new terminal.

“Certainly, the [security] measures are going to have a profound impact on the airport in the coming months,” Gill said. “The authority will have to confront numerous issues concerning the current terminal’s ability to accommodate the new security requirements.”

Representatives from the aviation consulting firms of Landrum&Brown; and SH&E; will update the public on the noise study, which was launched in July 2000.

Besides public testimony, the study will include a cost-benefit analysis of noise reduction, as well as information from the airlines and local businesses.

In 1990, Congress passed the Airport Noise and Control Act to stop the proliferation of noise rules at commercial airports, which was creating a patchwork of conflicting regulations for airlines.

A portion of that act, now contained in Part 161 of federal aviation regulations, empowered airports to conduct studies that could lead to special FAA-approved noise rules for individual airports.

Since then, about a dozen airports have considered or started so-called Part 161 studies. The FAA has not approved any curfews since the noise act was passed.

Burbank Airport, which serves about 4.7 million passengers a year, has been trying to build a terminal to better meet passenger demand and to relocate the existing 1930s-era facility, which federal officials say is too close to the runway.

After a protracted legal and political fight, city and airport negotiators signed a terminal framework agreement in August 1999. But that agreement broke down amid opposition from the FAA, the airlines and area residents.

Last year, Burbank voters approved a measure that seeks to reduce jet noise, air pollution and traffic congestion by imposing an overnight curfew and capping the number of flights. Shortly after, the city of Burbank filed a lawsuit against the airport authority.