Impact report on proposed Bob Hope Airport replacement terminal to land soon

The long-awaited draft environmental impact report of the often debated proposed replacement terminal at Bob Hope Airport will soon be available for the public to review, airfield officials told the Burbank City Council on Tuesday.

Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Authority board commissioner Terry Tornek said the report, which outlines the environmental impacts of the project, will be available on April 29. Once it is completed, city officials will be notified and that will mark the beginning of a 45-day review process.

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“The airport intends to hold multiple public meetings during this 45-day period,” Tornek said. “They’re intended to provide the public with the opportunity to understand the contents of the draft EIR and to provide their comments on the draft EIR.”

Airport officials have been looking to replace the existing 232,000-square-foot, 14-gate terminal building because they say it is not up to modern seismic or current Federal Aviation Administration standards. They are proposing to construct a new 355,000-square-foot terminal.

Councilwoman Emily Gabel-Luddy said she had concerns about the increase in square footage. However, Tornek explained that though the proposed terminal will be larger, it will have only 14 gates.

“The additional square footage is purely a function of circulation,” Tornek said. “There isn’t room for people to both circulate and wait at the gates,” he said. “The gate-waiting areas are enlarged and all the passenger-serving amenities are larger… We must build a terminal that the city can be proud of and the authority can be proud of, and it just takes bigger areas to circulate and hold people than it did 85 years ago.”

Vice Mayor Jess Talamantes echoed some of the concerns and criticisms that residents have raised with the proposed project, such as why are there not any efforts to preserve the existing “iconic” terminal and “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”

Tornek, who is mayor of Pasadena, said that he has worked on several preservation efforts in his city, but maintaining the existing terminal at Bob Hope is not an option for airport officials because of its current condition.

“That terminal is not a target for preservation interest,” he said. “I think it’s beloved because it’s convenient and funky. People have developed an emotional attachment to it. Operationally, it’s not functional. The building does not meet earthquake standards, the square footage for circulation and basic amenities is not available, proper security holding areas have been sort of jerry-rigged to meet federal standards and there is, of course, the issue of the proximity to the runway.”