Firm Hired to Study Air Terminal Options

With the long-planned site for a new terminal at Burbank Airport eliminated from consideration, airport authorities have commissioned an outside firm to research four alternative locations.

The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority chose an architectural consulting firm to look at possible sites around the airport and then tell the airport ruling body which sites warrant further study, said airport spokesman Victor Gill. The study, conducted by Howard Needles Tammen & Bergendoff and ordered by the commission Monday, will cost less than $10,000, he said.

The sites to be considered include:

A corner of the airport near Clybourn Avenue at the west end of the east-west runway, a location endorsed last week by the Los Angeles City Council at the recommendation of council representatives from the East San Fernando Valley. Homeowner groups in the Valley say that location would lessen aircraft noise over their neighborhoods by routing more takeoffs toward the east.

A tract now occupied by Lockheed Corp., west of Hollywood Way and north of Empire Avenue.

A location east of the Airport Hilton hotel near Thornton Avenue and Ontario Street.

A location in the southwest corner of the airport above Empire Avenue and west of the north-south runway.

William Love, a partner in the consulting firm, wrote the authority that “the study will not provide sufficient data to determine a final site for the terminal,” but will provide commissioners with a direction, possible costs, land requirements, planning design and other factors, Gill said.

“It’s a feasibility study for a feasibility study,” he said.

A new location must be found for the terminal because of the elimination of the previously determined site, 38 acres owned by Lockheed Corp. along San Fernando Road on the east side of the north-south runway.

Made Plans 5 Years Ago

Airport officials planned for five years to build a terminal on that land until the federal government ruled earlier this month that the location is too close to buildings where Lockheed engineers work on secret defense projects.

However, a new terminal must be built because of a ruling by the Federal Aviation Administration that the current terminal, constructed 55 years ago, is too close to the runway to meet modern safety standards.

Howard Needles Tammen & Bergendoff, a Los Angeles firm, previously did a feasibility study on the Lockheed site, which will be used “for comparison purposes” with the three other sites in the new study, Gill said.