Air Show OKd for Van Nuys, With Conditions

Los Angeles airport commissioners on Wednesday authorized an air show for Van Nuys Airport this summer after imposing conditions aimed at satisfying homeowner complaints about airplane noise and illegal automobile parking at two previous shows.

The two-day free exposition, which last year drew 210,000 people, making it the largest public event in the San Fernando Valley, will be Saturday and Sunday, July 21-22.

It will be held at the Air National Guard site on Balboa Boulevard, south of Roscoe Boulevard.

Airport staff officials say they have not yet secured commitments from exhibitors but hope to have a B-1B and a B-52 bomber, F-16 fighters and other front-line military craft, as well as historic military and civilian planes.

But because of conditions imposed Wednesday by the Board of Airport Commissioners, none of the planes at Aviation Expo ’90 will be permitted to conduct flying exhibitions over the airport.

Also, exhibitors will be pressured to arrive during normal business hours the day before the show and leave after 8 a.m. on Monday after the show, said Charles Zeman, Van Nuys Airport manager. Airport officials have acknowledged that they were peppered with complaints last year about noise from the flying demonstrations and from exhibitors taking off from the airport early Monday.

Homeowner group leaders also accused airport officials of turning off the system that automatically records telephoned noise complaints.

Zeman said the system was not turned off but was “overloaded, at least partly because people were using the complaint line to find out about the show so they could attend.”

Commissioners also directed the staff to open remote parking lots and charter buses to shuttle people to and from the show to lessen the glut of parking in nearby residential neighborhoods.

Lee Kanon Alpert, chairman of the Van Nuys Airport Citizens Advisory Council, endorsed the air show with the conditions attached by the commission, saying the event was of “great benefit to the community.”

Also, Don Schultz, president of Ban Airport Noise, a group that frequently criticizes the airport as too noisy, said that with the commission’s conditions, “I think it’s an event we can live with and support.”

But Gerald A. Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino, opposed the commission’s action, saying that “static air shows are far from quiet. They draw thousands of visitors, increase auto traffic and create congestion for miles around.”