Local News in Brief : Robbins Seeks New Hearing on Airport
State Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana) has asked Caltrans to reopen a hearing on a vital state permit for Van Nuys Airport to investigate charges by an anti-noise activist that Los Angeles city lawyers misled him into supporting the permit’s renewal.
The city attorney’s office denies the charge.
Robbins sent a letter to the state Department of Transportation last month, asking the agency to reopen the hearing into the city-owned airport’s variance, which allows the facility to operate without meeting state noise-control limits. Like almost all major airports in the state, Van Nuys Airport could not remain open without a variance because it is impossible to meet the law’s noise standards, airport officials said.
Caltrans spokesmen said the department has not decided what to do about Robbins’ request but that no such hearing has ever been reopened.
Robbins acted after Don Schultz of Van Nuys, president of Ban Airport Noise, accused the city attorney’s office of acting in bad faith by misleading the senator during negotiations for an agreement that cleared the way for the variance’s renewal.
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