BURBANK : Airport Gets Cash to Soundproof School

Burbank Airport officials accepted a $2-million federal grant Friday that will meet the conditions of a lawsuit settlement between the airport and the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The grant, to be matched by $500,000 from the airport, will be used to soundproof and install air conditioning at Glenwood School, a Sun Valley elementary school at the end of the airport’s north-south runway.

The lawsuit, filed in July by the school district, charged that plans for a new, larger terminal failed to consider noise impact on nearby schools. Under a settlement signed this month, Burbank Airport pays $500,000 and seeks $2 million in federal grants to soundproof the school.

But airport spokesman Victor Gill said the facility had planned to provide funding to soundproof the school prior to the lawsuit. In fact, he said the airport applied for the grant in 1989.

The settlement with the school district does not, however, affect a separate lawsuit filed by the city of Los Angeles against the airport over the terminal plans. A hearing on that suit--which also grew out of concerns about noise--is scheduled in Los Angeles Superior Court on Oct. 29.