Don’t Lessen Quality of Life With Jet Noise

* This letter is a response to the June 27 commentary page article by Steve Volz, chairman of Friends of Burbank Airport.

Mr. Volz, a proponent of Burbank Airport expansion, thinks that Valley residents need to “face facts” and accept the reality of increased jet noise pollution. He writes that he personally has grown accustomed to loud jet plane noise and that his Valley neighbors had better get used to it, too.

If Mr. Volz and his organization get their way, the Burbank/Glendale/Pasadena Airport will almost double in size and the result will be a lot more air traffic and a much louder San Fernando Valley.

An amusing argument made by Mr. Volz is that it’s the jet planes--not the airports--that make all the noise. In effect, he is trying to distance himself from airplanes when making the case for expanding the airport.

While Mr. Volz’s observation that airplanes and not airports make very loud noise is quite brilliant, I believe Valley residents realize that an expanded airport means more air traffic and more noise.

Mr. Volz dismisses the “share the noise” idea that would have planes taking off over different parts of the Valley. As it now stands, 90% of future air traffic will be to the south of the airport, sending the loud jets over the communities of Studio City, Valley Village, Sherman Oaks and North Hollywood. Planes would not fly over the cities that the airport takes its name from--Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena. Why? Mr. Volz blames the government for not cooperating in allowing the east/west runway expansion that would make this possible.

The fact is the city of Los Angeles and most Valley homeowners associations are against the proposed expansion of the Burbank Airport because of loud noise. The cities of Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena are all for expansion--as long as the planes don’t fly over their communities.

Mr. Volz says that “the best single argument” supporting the expansion is “economic and sociological.” Exactly whose economy is an expanded airport going to help? Certainly not the San Fernando Valley’s--it would become a less desirous place to live with all the noise.

Here is the big question: Is there such a severe problem with airport overcrowding in Los Angeles that the quality of life for entire Valley communities needs to be lessened with increased nonstop loud jet noise? I think not.

GERARD T. FARRELL

Valley Village