Proposal Catches Van Nuys Aviation Firms by Surprise

Aviation businesses catering to noisy aircraft at Van Nuys Airport said they were caught by surprise Tuesday by a proposed rule that could phase out older aircraft and hand a major victory to homeowners in a decades-old feud.

A rule recommended by airport commissioners Tuesday would block any additional noisy planes from being based at Van Nuys.

A portion of the amendment also would extend a nightly curfew by one hour, reducing air-traffic noise after 10 p.m. instead of the current 11 p.m. The curfew would end at 7 a.m., as it does now, but does not apply to helicopters.

Representatives of airport businesses said they have long expected changes in the curfew and are resigned to go along with them. But they said they were not prepared for the so-called non-addition rule.

Dozens of airport businesses said the rule could severely cripple their operations and force layoffs of hundreds of employees.

The Federal Aviation Administration approved the proposed changes in August.

“If this thing stays, it will devastate Van Nuys Airport,” said Clay Lacy, owner of one of the oldest and largest base operators, in an interview after the commission meeting Tuesday.

“We felt the FAA would never cave in to this,” he said, blaming himself and other businesses for “not getting out and lobbying.”

More than a dozen representatives of airport businesses unsuccessfully pleaded with commissioners to postpone a recommendation for 60 to 90 days. Lacy and others said the city has not considered the economic ramifications of the proposal.

But airport Commissioner Patricia Schnegg said during Tuesday’s meeting that the action was predictable.

“I am amazed this is a shock because this has been one of the biggest feuds that has been going on for a long time,” she said. Commissioners voted 3 to 2 to recommend adoption of the curfew and non-addition rule.

Disappointed by the commission action, Lacy, president of Clay Lacy Aviation, and other business leaders raced downtown to City Hall, where a City Council committee Tuesday afternoon was scheduled to act on the commission recommendation. Approval by the full City Council was tentatively scheduled for next week, with the new rules to be implemented immediately upon adoption.

After presentations from concerned businesses, however, the City Council’s Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources Committee decided to postpone action until next week to allow the base operators and others to study the recommendation further.

“It seems like a real railroad job here,” Lacy told the committee.

Mark Sullivan, president of Skytrails Aviation, said the motion to extend the curfew and to limit Stage 2 or noisier aircraft would not answer the noise objections of Los Angeles residents.

“This is not going to solve the noise problem in the San Fernando Valley,” Sullivan said. “It’s going to transfer the problem to Burbank Airport.”

Despite opposition from base operators, aides to council members Laura Chick, Mike Feuer and Joel Wachs advocated passage of the motion.

“This is nothing new that’s come out of the sky,” Wachs’ planning deputy, Tom Henry, said of the motion. “This is something that’s been discussed since the early 1990s . . . and we finally have something that the FAA can work with.”

A few homeowner leaders, as they have argued over the years, criticized the proposed rules as being too slow to get rid of noisy aircraft.

The amendment “will not even begin to address the existing noise problem,” said Gerald Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino. He said the resolution by airport commissioners is “loaded with loopholes” and “will only lock in the existing noise problem, with no promise of relief.”