L.A. Council Backs Measure in Congress to Compel Eastward Takeoffs at Burbank

The Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted Friday to support pending congressional legislation aimed at shifting half of the takeoffs at Burbank Airport away from East San Fernando Valley neighborhoods.

At the same time, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office sent to the council a draft of a letter to the airport advising it to implement a plan to equally divide takeoffs between the two runways and disputing claims that such a plan is unsafe.

Lawsuit Expected

The letter, which must be approved by the full council before it is mailed, is expected to be a precursor to a lawsuit by Los Angeles to force the airport to institute a share-the-noise plan.

Commercial airlines now take off to the south over Burbank, then turn west over North Hollywood, Sherman Oaks, Studio City and Van Nuys. An eastbound takeoff would send flights over Burbank and Glendale.

The east-west runway has been closed 16 months because the Federal Aviation Administration said it is too close to the passenger terminal. The airport plans to reopen the runway after a new terminal is built.

Friday’s council endorsement was sought by Councilmen Joel Wachs, Ernani Bernardi and John Ferraro, all of whom represent Valley areas affected by airport noise.

The legislation, introduced at the request of U.S. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), calls for withholding $40 million in federal improvement grants for the airport until it adopts a share-the-noise plan. The plan would have to be deemed feasible and safe by the FAA.

The measure, an amendment to a massive airport-improvement bill, was approved earlier this month by the House Public Works and Transportation Committee on a 31-21 vote, with all but one Democrat supporting it and all Republicans opposed. The bill is expected to go before the full House in July.

Meeting With Mineta

Victor Gill, the airport’s manager of community relations, said Robert W. Garcin, airport authority president, plans to meet Monday in Washington with Rep. Norman Y. Mineta (D-San Jose), the aviation subcommittee chairman who introduced the amendment at Berman’s request, to urge him to withdraw his support for the measure.

Garcin will say, for one thing, that the airport has tried to divert flights away from Los Angeles but has run into opposition from pilots who consider eastbound takeoffs risky because planes have to climb quickly over the Verdugo Mountains. Gill said the airport doesn’t have the power to order pilots to take off to the east against their will.

The city attorney’s letter, meanwhile, was requested by Chairwoman Joan Milke Flores of the City Council’s Industry and Economic Development Committee. She was responding to a Bernardi-Wachs motion, made last January, to have the city look into legal action to force the airport to adopt a share-the-noise plan.

“In our view, equalization of runway usage is required pursuant to state and federal law,” the letter says, citing a section of the state Environmental Quality Act, which requires public agencies “to take all action necessary to provide the people of this state with . . . freedom from excessive noise.”

The city attorney’s office also disputed claims that takeoffs from north-south Runway 15 are safer than those from east-west Runway 7 because Runway 15 is slightly longer.

“Runway 7 was safely used for air-carrier operations during an entire quarter of 1979, while the north-south runway was reconstructed,” the letter says. “Hughes Airwest also subsequently utilized Runway 7 for departures as a noise-mitigation measure for a brief time.”

The letter also says the airport and FAA “should consider an extension of Runway 7 as part of the new terminal project if the length of Runway 7 is an important factor in its use for departures.”

In a related issue, the council’s Industry and Economic Development Committee on Friday will resume discussion on whether Los Angeles should reconsider joining the airport authority. Los Angeles, fearful of noise lawsuits, previously declined membership.