Mediator in Burbank Airport Dispute Downplays Her Role

The head of the Federal Aviation Administration, who has agreed to serve as a mediator in the bitter dispute between the city of Burbank and Burbank Airport, has warned that she has no power to grant the city’s demand for more noise restrictions and curfews, city officials said Tuesday.

Burbank Mayor Bob Kramer criticized FAA administrator Jane Garvey, saying that in her letter to Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) she had turned her back on the people of Burbank.

In the letter, made public Tuesday by Burbank officials, Garvey stated that it is not within the power of her agency--or that of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, which governs the airport--to impose the noise restrictions and curfews the city has requested.

She is still expected to come to Burbank and attempt to mediate the long dispute over the proposed expansion of the airport’s terminal, city officials said. No date has been set.

“I was disappointed in the letter,” said Kramer, who with other City Council members has argued vigorously for limits on the number of flights at Burbank Airport and the time of day planes can take off.

“I think she had an opportunity to help solve the problem, but she turned her back on the people of Burbank. Basically, she’s saying, ‘Solve your own problem, the FAA’s not going to get involved in finding a solution.’ ”

The letter stated that “the imposition of an airport noise or access restriction, such as a curfew, a Stage 2 ban, or a noise budget, is subject to governing federal law and is not within the power of the Burbank Airport authority or the Federal Aviation Administration to impose” on its own.

The letter followed an announcement last month by Rep. Howard L. Berman (D--Mission Hills) that Garvey had agreed to come to Burbank to play a “proactive role” in brokering a solution to the long-running airport dispute, which has centered around plans to expand the terminal to 19 gates and build additional parking.

From the beginning, the prospect of Garvey playing a role had been treated with caution--even some skepticism--by Burbank officials who said they welcomed talks but pointed out that the congressmen were working in the best interests of their constituents in the neighborhoods to the south and west of Burbank Airport, not of Burbank residents.

Sherman sought to minimize the importance of the letter, calling it “innocuous and bureaucratic.”

“The letter is far less significant than the meeting that took place March 11 between the administrator, Congressman Berman and myself,” Sherman said. “The administrator’s comments show a desire to help meet community concerns.”

“She’s being cautious until she gets out here and gets to know the issues better,” said Burbank Councilman Ted McConkey.

But Victor Gill, a spokesman for the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, which governs the airport, interpreted the letter differently.

“We’ve had a long-running debate with Burbank where they demand the imposition of a mandatory curfew and a cap on flights,” Gill said. “Our response has been that the airport would do the studies required by federal law but that the airport could not guarantee the outcome.

“The administrator has backed up the position the airport has always held,” he said, adding that the authority was considering using the letter in its public relations battle with Burbank.

Burbank officials have argued that construction of a new terminal would bring more noise and traffic. The airport commission has argued that airport traffic depends on demand by airline passengers, 5 million of whom use the existing facility each year.

Both sides have been battling in court since 1996 over the airport’s plans to purchase 130 acres from Lockheed-Martin Corp. to build a new terminal. Both sides have had victories and losses.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled in October that the state Public Utilities Code allowed Burbank to use its local powers to block airport expansion. The apparent victory for the city was reversed by a subsequent ruling by the same judge that Burbank had relinquished those powers in setting up a joint-powers authority with Glendale and Pasadena to run the airport.

On the federal level, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals gave the airport authority a victory, upholding a 1996 federal environmental study that approved construction of the terminal. It also gave Burbank a small victory when it upheld a lower court’s dismissal of the authority’s challenge to state law.

It was against that backdrop that Garvey entered the dispute. Thus far, she has not announced when she will meet with the two sides.