The Costs and Benefits of Noisy Airport : Flights over Burbank may give residents headaches, but they also stimulate local economy
We have a few messages for those who run the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport, and for those neighbors who are so fed up with the noise generated by its operations.
Some of us are well-acquainted with the pitfalls of living near an airport: having to turn up the volume on your television set so that flight noise won’t obliterate a vital piece of dialogue; asking the person on the other end of the telephone to repeat what was just said; settling in for that one morning of the weekend in which you are able to sleep late, only to wind up counting takeoffs instead of sheep, and wondering whether the rookie performing touch-and-go practices is going to wind up as a roof ornament.
For its part, Burbank Airport has tried to be a better neighbor. It was the first to shift to quieter aircraft. It also has a 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. flight curfew. But the roar of aircraft can seem to be an unforgivable intrusion. That is why we would urge the Airport Authority to make certain that it has done all that it can to reduce the noise associated with each takeoff. But there are other realities.
One is that the airport has won another round in court. Judge Robert H. O’Brien has ruled that airport officials complied with state law in the manner in which they carried out an environmental impact report. That amounts to a major victory in the airport’s efforts to build a new and larger terminal that will accommodate as many as 10 million passengers annually by 2010. We think that new terminal should go forward.
Burbank Airport is not just a local resource, but a regional one. It continues to grow in terms of flight operations because more and more people want to take advantage of the option. Its steady contribution to the local economy, in terms of jobs and dollars spent, has been a boon during tough recessionary times. That fact won’t reduce the decibels, but it might increase your tolerance of them. We hope so.
