2 Sides Dispute Proposals for Van Nuys Airport

Homeowners and operators of aviation-related businesses clashed Monday over a proposal to ban more of the noisiest class of private jets from being based at Van Nuys Airport and to extend a takeoff and landing curfew there to helicopters.

The special meeting of the airport’s Citizens Advisory Council was called by Chairman George Jerome after aviation interests contended new rules could force layoffs of dozens of employees, severely affect the economic stability of the airport and ruin their businesses.

More than 250 people--the majority wearing red-lettered “I Love VNY” buttons--alternately cheered and booed speakers. Some described the ongoing dispute between homeowners and aviation interests as “a war.” Dozens of aviation workers took the podium to plead for their jobs and the economic stability of the airport.

Several speakers urged that an extensive economic study be done before any action is taken.

The debate over airport rules has centered on a curfew adopted in 1981 that prohibits operation of so-called Stage 2 aircraft between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. Stage 2 planes are noisier private jets, from an older generation manufactured before the development of quieter engines.

Homeowners have argued for decades to extend the hours of the curfew and to require news media helicopters to comply with it. They also want to adopt a plan to phase out Stage 2 aircraft now based at the airport.

David Rankell, a member of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., said, “We’re not advocating a slowdown or a shutdown of Van Nuys Airport. We’re advocating a better quality of life, which we haven’t had for years.”

Most operators of aviation businesses say they are resigned to a one-hour expansion of the curfew to 10 p.m. But they say they were unaware, when the Los Angeles City Council in September passed a resolution ordering the airport commission to draw up rules to extend the curfew, that it would also ban any more Stage 2 aircraft from being based at Van Nuys.

Aviation groups and advisory council members said they learned about the proposed rules just two days before an airport commission hearing last month. A City Council committee was scheduled to consider the issue just hours after the airport commission hearing, and final approval by the full City Council was expected the following week.

Calling the proposed rule changes “a real railroad job,” Clay Lacy, president of Clay Lacy Aviation, and other business leaders managed to temporarily stall the changes. But the issue is scheduled to be brought before the airport commission again Dec. 2 and before the City Council committee Dec. 9.

In a letter to airport officials last month, Lacy said that about half of all executive jet aircraft based at Van Nuys fall into the Stage 2 category and that most replacement planes and additional aircraft in the future also will be of the noisier class.

He said older Gulfstream jets, for example, cost $5 million to $10 million, compared with $27 million to $37 million for newer, quieter models. “It is just plain economically impossible for companies, except the giants, to step up” to the new jets, Lacy argued.

Several speakers Monday urged the advisory council to recommend further economic studies before action is taken.

“This legislation should not be rammed into law without very careful consideration,” said Jerome, the advisory council chairman, in an interview before the meeting.

Jerome earlier this month lashed out at the airport commission for failing to bring the issue to the advisory council, a 15-member appointed group representing homeowners, businesses and aviation interests. He said the debate is “the most important issue to come up before this airport for years, and this panel is bypassed.”