Putting Lid on Noise at Airport : Controls were promised 14 years ago. Now the City Council panel should act quickly on a regulation setting decibel limits and banning the noisiest jets.

In 1979, the residents of the San Fernando Valley were promised an effective noise regulation for Van Nuys Airport by the Los Angeles City Council. Fourteen years have elapsed, and we still are without effective controls. In the meantime, things have gotten worse, as many new jets and helicopters have made Van Nuys Airport their home.

There is some hope. The city Board of Airport Commissioners approved a noise regulation last year that is now pending before the council. It would set a maximum noise limit of 77 decibels for arrivals and departures between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. and ban the noisiest jets. Helicopters are not included. The plan would be brought into effect in phases, beginning in 1993.

Most homeowner associations and thousands of Valley residents favor this regulation. It is vigorously opposed by pro-aviation interests that do not want to see any real noise limits, especially those that would exclude loud, older planes.

The matter now goes before the council’s Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where an all-out effort is under way against it by the well-funded pro-aviation industry. Fortunately, Councilman Marvin Braude, Councilwoman Laura Chick and Mayor Richard Riordan have voiced support for residents’ wishes.

What must be done next? The committee should approve the regulation in its present form and move it to the full council and on to Mayor Riordan with no delay. Follow-up amendments should impose a helicopter noise curfew, setting tight controls over which helicopters may fly and when.

There is a myth that the bulk of disturbing helicopter operations are police- and fire-related flights. This is not the case. Corporate, charter, training and dinner flight helicopters are the main source.

The six fire helicopters based at Van Nuys are on the ground most of the time. The 17-helicopter police fleet is based in Los Angeles at Piper Tech, not Van Nuys. They fly in only every 100 hours for maintenance or service, though of course they do patrol over the area. The six General Services helicopters are also on the ground much of the time.

Media helicopters are a major source of annoyance since they fly over freeways, but they are not exclusively concentrated in the Van Nuys area. The Fox TV, KFWB Radio, KTLA and Air Watch helicopters operate frequently from Van Nuys Airport.

Van Nuys Airport has become a major helicopter training site, resulting in a significant number of daytime operations. The choppers often fly down Bull Creek, the Ventura Freeway and to downtown Los Angeles on practice runs. Private, charter and corporate helicopter operators are the most egregious because they engage in repetitive training operations.

The most annoying helicopter operations are for sightseeing. Several operators offer dinner flights, limo service and sightseeing. These helicopters arrive and depart every 15 minutes all evening. The Ventura Freeway has become the preferred joy-riding route for thousands of nuisance helicopter flights. Encino, Sherman Oaks and Studio City are the most affected.

What should be done? Training, corporate and other private operations should be restricted or excluded. Dinner flights, joy-riding and sightseeing operations should not be conducted over populated bedroom communities. The preferred arrival and departure route for all helicopters should be Stagg Street, over industrial property.

The southern route should be abandoned. It forces helicopters over heavily populated areas. Bull Creek operations should be restricted or eliminated.

Of all the major airports in this area, Van Nuys remains the one with the least effective plan for development. For decades, homeowners have asked for a master plan to replace the skimpy four-page document adopted in 1972.

Finally the Department of Airports has hired a consultant to develop one. It will establish land-use, traffic, noise, air quality and safety standards.

It is essential that this plan, which will probably take three years to draft, reflect homeowner concerns. Pressure for a pro-growth plan will come from the aviation community. It will ask for more hangars, ramp space and jet and helicopter facilities. These should be rejected.

The plan must protect residents, not be a blueprint for expansion. It should throttle back airport operations. It should establish limits on noise, the number of operations, air traffic handling capability, square footage of hangar space, the number of helicopters and corporate jet tie-downs.

It should include a timetable for the reduction of operations to make the airport safer and quieter. With these steps the airport can truly be the good neighbor it claims to be.