Politicians Join Anti-Noise Forces in Denouncing Airport Expansion

A parade of Los Angeles politicians led the protest against expansion of Burbank Airport at a public hearing Friday night.

City Councilmen Joel Wachs and Zev Yaroslavsky, whose districts include San Fernando Valley neighborhoods where the movement to protest airport noise is strong, delivered harsh attacks on the airport, accusing the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority of ignoring the complaints of Los Angeles residents.

The hearing was called by the authority to hear comments on the draft environmental impact report for a planned new terminal that would greatly increase the airport’s capacity.

Also appearing were representatives speaking for Rep. Howard Berman, state Sen. Al Robbins, County Supervisor Ed Edelman, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and City Councilman Michael Woo.

All opposed increasing the airport’s traffic, citing noise, pollution and safety problems.

Wachs, Berman and Yaroslavsky called for adoption of the controversial “share-the-noise” proposal, which would attempt to require airline pilots to make at least half the takeoffs from the airport to the east--over the three cities that own the airport--instead of over Los Angeles neighborhoods to the south and west.

Berman, in a letter read by an aide, accused the authority of being “nothing but unreasonable,” and said it had “stonewalled us, refusing to compromise” on the issue.

The authority argues that, under Federal Aviation Administration regulations and federal court rulings, it has no authority over the direction airline pilots choose to take off.

Legal Battles Predicted

Yaroslavsky, accusing the authority of “trying to bring LAX to the San Fernando Valley,” said the City of Los Angeles will “stop at nothing” to press legal actions blocking an expansion of the airport. Failure by the airport authority to cooperate “will tie us up in legal battles until long after we’re all gone,” he said.

The hearing drew a crowd of about 200, smaller than had been expected after weeks of efforts by anti-noise homeowner groups to turn out a large attendance. The protesters and many of the officeholders complained that the authority had scheduled the meeting on a Friday evening to make it inconvenient for many people to attend. Tom Patterson of the Van Nuys Home Owners Assn. complained that the timing discriminated against Orthodox Jews, whose Sabbath begins at sundown Friday.

The protesters dominated the meeting. Most of those in the audience wore fluorescent orange “stop airport expansion” badges distributed by the homeowners’ groups.

They gave Wachs a standing ovation when he accused the members of the authority, who presided over the meeting, of bad faith, saying the report had been drawn up in such a way as to conceal “devastating impacts” on Los Angeles residents.

An attempt by Burbank City Atty. Douglas Hollander to defend his city, saying Burbank was being unfairly blamed by Los Angeles officials, drew boos and a shout of “Get lost.” Hollander was the only public official to speak favorably of the airport.

The loudest ovation went to Gerald Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino, who repeatedly called for the airport to be closed.

“This airport is no longer appropriate for this community,” said Silver, a longtime leader of the movement protesting airport noise. “It’s time to close it up and move it to Palmdale. . . . It no longer belongs in the heart of a residential community.”

Dozens of residents followed the politicians to the microphones, protesting the plan.

They included Gregory Wolf, 17, of Sherman Oaks, a senior class representative from Oakwood School in North Hollywood, who protested that aircraft noise interrupted classes, assemblies and school plays. He was joined by seventh-grader Joel Astman, 12, of Van Nuys, and first-grader Elana Wien of North Hollywood, who told the crowd that airplanes interrupted her teacher at story time “and make my ears hurt.”

One of the few members of the public to speak in favor of the airport was A. C. Young of Toluca Lake, who said he has had an office for many years that is only 1,500 feet from the airport’s runway, and that advances in jet-engine technology had “considerably decreased” aircraft noise in recent years.

The crowd erupted in boos. Young said many people need to use the airport, adding that “a lot of people in this room must use the airport.”

“Noooooooo,” the crowd responded, shouting him down.

The hearing was the latest chapter in the long campaign by some homeowner groups against the airport.

The homeowners have repeatedly called for limits on airport operations, including a ceiling on the number of flights allowed and controls on the direction of departing jetliners.

For years, the airport administration has responded that, under federal law, it has no authority to do either.

Friday’s hearing was called as part of the legally required environmental review of the airport’s plans for a new terminal. The terminal is designed to handle as many as 92,270 takeoffs and landings a year, almost double last year’s 50,827, and 7.3 million passengers annually, more than twice last year’s total of 3 million.

The new terminal would have 285,000 square feet of space, more than double the existing 130,000 square feet. It would have boarding gates for 18 aircraft, in contrast with the present 14.

Plans for the new terminal have placed airport administrators under conflicting demands.

The FAA has been pressuring them to build a new terminal because the present one, built more than 50 years ago, is too close to the runways to meet modern safety regulations.

Eastbound Takeoffs Banned

The FAA, saying the move was required for safety reasons because of the proximity of the terminal to the east-west runway, has banned eastbound takeoffs from the airport for 20 months.

The homeowner groups, by contrast, have mounted a campaign to try to require that at least half the takeoffs be routed to the east. Now, almost all jetliners take off to the south, then circle west and north over the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Studio City, Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks and North Hollywood.

Airport officials maintain that the pilots, who have the last word, will always prefer to take off to the south because the southbound runway is longer, runs downhill, faces more closely into the prevailing winds and avoids the Verdugo Mountains, which loom immediately before an eastbound plane.

Southbound pilots must circle back to the north to avoid flying into the path of planes in the approach pattern to LAX, the FAA has said.