VAN NUYS : Mayor Backs Rule to Limit Copter Noise

A campaign by community activists to fight helicopter noise in neighborhoods surrounding Van Nuys Airport has received support from the city’s top official.

Mayor Richard Riordan has added his name to a long list of Los Angeles-area politicians who are supporting a proposed federal rule that would force non-emergency helicopter operators to observe a 1,000-foot minimum altitude over populated areas. Currently, there is no altitude minimum.

A homeowners association in Encino tried unsuccessfully to persuade helicopter pilots to accept minimum altitudes but the airport declined to set them. So the association--the Homeowners of Encino--took its battle to the federal level. The group is seeking a rule to set minimum altitudes nationwide. This summer, the Federal Aviation Administration printed the group’s petition for the proposed rule change in the Federal Register, the first step in a process that could take 2 1/2 years.

In a letter to the FAA, Riordan wrote: “The City of Los Angeles consistently receives complaints by residents who are awakened and disturbed by both early morning and low-altitude sight-seeing flights.

“In some circumstances, these interruptions make it impossible for residents to perform their normal daily activities.”

The other local politicians who have written to support the altitude minimum are U. S. Reps. Anthony Beilenson, Howard Berman and Henry Waxman; state Sens. Herschel Rosenthal, Tom Hayden, Ralph Dills and David Roberti; Assembly members Burt Margolin, Barbara Friedman, Terry Friedman and Richard Katz; and City Council members Joel Wachs, Marvin Braude, Laura Chick, John Ferraro and Zev Yaroslavsky.