Burbank to Discuss More Aggressive Airport Role

The Burbank City Council is scheduled to discuss a proposal tonight that would grant the city more power over the operation of Burbank Airport.

But if Burbank decides to press for changes to the joint operating agreement it shares with Glendale and Pasadena, chances appear slim that both partners would agree to the proposal.

The proposal before the Burbank council would require the airport to abide by all of Burbank’s regulations and ordinances. It also would require using airport revenues to pay for soundproofing of homes in South Burbank and a majority vote of each city’s delegation to the airport authority for any operational change that would create additional noise.

The airport is run by the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, a nine-member board made up of three representatives from each city. A proposal to modify the joint-powers agreement must be approved by the governments of all three municipalities.

“From our standpoint, they don’t make a great deal of sense,” Glendale Mayor Carl W. Raggio, an airport authority commissioner, said of the proposed modifications. “The changes are unnecessary.”

David K. Robinson, an airport commissioner from Pasadena, said his city would not automatically rule out such proposed changes. But he said about airport commissioners from his city: “Whether they would agree to it or not depends on the specifics.”

Inordinate Power

The majority-vote requirement is the most controversial, detractors say, because it would give one city inordinate power over operational changes.

“That means that two people from Burbank could effectively call the shots,” said Thomas Greer, director of airport services.

Burbank is particularly concerned with the effect of airport noise on surrounding neighborhoods, said Burbank Councilwoman Mary Lou Howard, one of her city’s airport commissioners. Burbank has fought an operational change calling for expansion of the airport.

The request that the airport abide by Burbank city rules is unnecessary, opponents of the proposal say, because the facility already adheres to city laws. And the recommendation that airport revenues be used to pay for soundproofing homes is already under discussion and depends on the outcome of a federal airport study, Greer said.

“This was intended to be a partnership and now we have a situation where one of the partners wants more and the other two partners are saying no,” Greer said. “The partners don’t negotiate with a gun at their heads.”

Late last year, airport staff members submitted to each of the three cities a proposed revision to the joint-powers agreement. That revision said that the airport can take commercial or industrial property through eminent domain.

Glendale and Pasadena approved the proposal in December. Burbank has not yet approved it.

Instead, Burbank will consider the proposal tonight, along with the revisions to give it more power, which were drafted by City Atty. Douglas C. Holland.

Howard contends that most problems associated with the airport--such as noise and traffic--adversely affect Burbank, not Glendale and Pasadena.

“They benefit but they don’t have any of the negatives,” the councilwoman said.

Holland said the proposal he authored is not an attempt to grab power for Burbank.

“It’s not a question of trying to exert any additional control,” Holland said. The airport is “unique to our city in that it’s in our back yard.”

“I don’t want to create the impression that it’s Burbank’s language or nothing,” Holland said. “We’re more than willing to talk about a way we could achieve our goals and do it in such a way that would be acceptable to Glendale and Pasadena.”

Said Howard: “We just want to ensure that our Burbank residents are not affected any more than they already are by that airport.”

But Greer argues the facility is “a regional resource--it’s not a city park and it cannot be operated as such.”

Greer said that adding Burbank’s three points to the joint-powers agreement would be tantamount to ensuring that the airport will not grow and that “nothing will ever change from now on.”