Burbank Airport Neighbors Retain Noise-Suit Rights

The Burbank City Council has agreed that residents living near the Burbank Airport should be exempt from an ordinance that would have required them to give up their rights to sue the airport over excessive noise if they received public funds to soundproof their homes.

About 20 people from the Burbank Flatlanders Home Protection League staged a demonstration outside Burbank City Hall before the City Council’s regular meeting Tuesday night.

“The city and airport have their tongues hanging out trying to take our rights away because they’re scared to death of being sued when they double the flights at the airport,” said Wally Berns, president of the neighborhood group.

The council later voted 4 to 1 to exempt the homeowners from the ordinance, which will require developers of new motel, hotel and apartment buildings near the airport to install sound insulation. Those developers also will be required to give up their right to sue the airport for creating excessive noise before being issued a building permit from the city.

Mayor Robert R. Bowne opposed the homeowner exemption, saying he feared that the city was opening itself up to legal action by the airport.

Burbank Airport spokesman Victor Gill said the council’s decision to exempt homeowners might make it more difficult for the airport to obtain federal funds to soundproof nearby homes and schools.

The Federal Aviation Administration recently awarded a $2.5-million grant to the airport to soundproof Luther Burbank Junior High. The school insulation project is part of the airport’s long-range noise-relief program for the surrounding neighborhood.

Gill said the FAA does not require that homeowners, who receive public funds to insulate their homes, must give up their right to sue airports over excessive noise. But he said because Burbank Airport is competing with 185 airports across the country for federal funds, the FAA might look more favorably upon a city that imposes some requirements on homeowners.