FAA Chief Sets Meeting With Neighbors of Airport : Burbank: Flight path has been opposed for years; now concerns are raised over plans to increase terminal’s size.

Responding to a growing public debate over plans to expand Burbank Airport, Federal Aviation Administration chief David Hinson will meet today with neighbors upset about aircraft noise and the threat of more.

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Hinson will attend a meeting at the home of a community activist who opposes the airport’s present flight path over neighborhoods such as North Hollywood, Valley Village and Studio City. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) requested the meeting.

The direction that planes depart Burbank Airport has been a point of contention for years between airport officials and Los Angeles residents, who say some flights should take off to the east, rather than the present flight path to the south and west. Airport officials say the Verdugo Mountains block eastbound takeoffs.

The issue has gained new urgency as strong community opposition has appeared to plans for quadrupling the size of the present airport terminal.

Berman--who represents North Hollywood, Van Nuys and Sun Valley--said he would like to see Burbank and Glendale share more of the burden of airport noise. Berman said he is seeking the FAA’s help in resolving the ongoing debate with the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority.

“People’s lives have been detrimentally affected by airplane noise,” he said. “I’m not trying to block the airport or block the new terminal.

“The point here is not to get in a long and protracted debate with the Airport Authority. The point here is for the community to have a talk with the FAA head.”

FAA safety regulations require the airport to replace the existing 163,000-square-foot facility. But some homeowners fear that a new 670,000-square-foot terminal with nearly twice as many aircraft gates will create even more airplane noise and pollution.

Hinson will emphasize the FAA’s support of the current flight pattern and plans to build a larger terminal, agency spokesman Fred O’Donnell said.

But O’Donnell said the FAA tries not to get involved in public debates over specific details of a project before a community decides for itself.

“To take one side or another on a particular issue is not what we’re trying to do,” he said.

Lori Dinkin, president of the Valley Village Homeowners Assn., will host the meeting in her home.

“We’ve always known the airport isn’t going away and we understand that. We aren’t wild-eyed radicals,” she said. “We feel very strongly that Burbank and Glendale are going to have to share the noise.”

At this point, airport officials say, that’s impossible.

Airplanes now depart Burbank Airport from a north-south runway that slopes downhill, away from the Verdugo Mountains, and is 1,000 feet longer than the west-east runway, airport Commissioner Carl Raggio Jr. said. Flights typically travel south over part of Burbank before heading toward such communities as North Hollywood and Studio City, he added.

“It’s a safety issue. It’s not a matter of sharing the pain” of airplane noise, Raggio said. “It’s a matter of whether pilots will act safely or recklessly.”

Airport officials were not invited to attend the meeting and said Wednesday that they were not aware it had been scheduled.

“I do think if he’s going to do something fairly, he certainly needs to meet with both sides,” Raggio said of Hinson. “If he doesn’t include both sides, he will hear one side--an emotional side.”

Berman said he would have invited airport officials to the talks had Hinson’s schedule permitted it.