FAA to study environmental impacts of Hollywood Burbank Airport’s replacement terminal
Hollywood Burbank Airport officials are looking to line up possible funding sources so construction can begin on a new 14-gate replacement terminal.
As a consultant finishes soil testing at the future terminal’s site, airport commissioners voted 6-0 Monday to approve a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Aviation Administration with the goal of receiving federal funding to help pay for the estimated $400-million terminal.
Pasadena commissioners Terry Tornek and Steve Madison and Glendale commissioner Zareh Sinanyan were absent.
According to the memorandum, the FAA will prepare an environmental impact statement regarding the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority’s project to build a 355,000-square-foot terminal on the northeast section of the airfield, which is known as the B-6 site. The statement will determine whether the project meets the standards laid out in the National Environmental Policy Act, said Dan Feger, the airport’s director of development services.
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Should the federal agency’s findings determine the project will not have major impacts on the surrounding area, Feger said the airport authority would be able to ask for grant funding to help pay for construction.
The FAA can either use its own staff members or choose a contractor to prepare the statement. Terence Boga, the authority’s attorney, said the federal agency will be using a contractor to complete the study.
Boga added that the airport will send out a request for quotation to compile a list of contractors from which the FAA can choose.
Last year, the airport authority approved an environmental impact report under the California Environmental Quality Act guidelines. That document determined several impacts the project would have on the surrounding community, including traffic congestion and exposure to possible hazardous materials during construction, all of which could be mitigated.
Feger said the FAA could have chosen to conduct an environmental assessment of the project, which is less intensive of a study than an environmental impact statement. However, because the federal agency is aware of the history of the airport authority trying to replace its current terminal, the federal agency decided to complete an impact statement.
“At other locations, at other airports, where it’s not controversial, building a replacement terminal would probably not trigger the need for a full-blown environmental impact statement,” he said.
Due to the complexity and thoroughness of the report, the environmental impact statement is expected to be completed in anywhere from 18 and 24 months, said Frank Miller, the airport’s executive director.
anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com
Twitter: @acocarpio
