Panel Puts Airport Plan on Hold Due to Opposition

A $109.8-million proposal to buy land for a new, larger terminal at Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport will be tabled indefinitely because of the Burbank City Council’s adamant opposition, airport commissioners said Monday.

“The unfortunate part of it all is that the airport is a political football being kicked all over the place with no rhyme or reason,” said Chris Holden, a Pasadena councilman and member of the commission.

The board of commissioners overseeing the airport was expected to vote Monday on the measure, but the meeting was abruptly postponed until next week after a member of the audience complained that the meeting’s agenda had not been posted with enough advance public notice.

“Is the terminal replacement project over with? Yes,” said airport commissioner Robert W. Garcin of Glendale. “Can the terminal replacement project be brought up in the future or will it be? I don’t know.”

Even when the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority convenes again, however, a vote is not likely to take place because of the adamant opposition of the Burbank council, airport officials say.

“It can’t pass,” the board’s president, Brian Bowman, said of the proposal. “It’s senseless to even continue.”

Airport officials had hoped to build a 465,000-square-foot terminal, nearly triple its present size, with enough room for 5.4 million air travelers and up to 10 more flights a day, over the present average of 93, by 1998.

But the Burbank City Council--concerned about the potential for increased aircraft noise and traffic--instructed its three representatives to the Airport Authority, including Bowman, to veto the financial proposal.

Without a two-thirds vote from each of the three cities that oversee the airport, the Airport Authority cannot incur any debt. The commission is made up of nine members, three from each city.