Local News in Brief : Airport Noise Report Out

Burbank Airport should buy 54 homes outright and obtain noise rights from thousands of other homeowners to resolve aircraft noise problems by paying cash or providing sound-proofing expenses for their houses, an airport consultant recommended Thursday.

Leaders of homeowner groups immediately condemned the proposals as inadequate and unfair, with one anti-noise activist saying he would “fight tooth and nail” against provisions requiring some owners to pay half the cost of sound-proofing their homes. Sound proofing costs from $10,000 to $20,000 per home.

In return for financial help from the airport, homeowners would renounce the right to protest aircraft noise. The proposal calls for owners of 2,300 home sites to give or sell to the airport “avigation easements”--the right to fly aircraft over the property and cause noise on it.

The recommendations, contained in a report by the consulting firm Peat Marwick, follows a three-year study sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration. The study was conducted by committees made up of representatives of the public, government bodies and officeholders.