FAA Official Takes Neutral Role in Feud

Both sides in the long, bitter fight over a new terminal for Burbank Airport said they were heartened by private meetings Tuesday with Federal Aviation Administrator Jane Garvey, who pledged that her agency would take an active--but not dominant--role as peacemaker.

Garvey met for three hours at the Burbank Airport Hilton with congressional representatives, state lawmakers, officials of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, Burbank city leaders, local homeowners and airport industry representatives.

The airport authority wants to build a larger terminal, partly for safety reasons and partly because of the airport’s popularity with travelers. That generated vociferous protests from Burbank homeowners and the Burbank city government that the new terminal will lead to more aircraft noise, and the issue has been fought in political and legal arenas for years.

Attending the sessions were Reps. Howard L. Berman (D-Mission Hills) and Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), as well as representatives for U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Rep. James E. Rogan (R-Glendale) and Assemblyman Scott Wildman (D-Los Angeles).

After meeting separately with the opposing groups--to avoid confrontations in her presence--Garvey said the FAA would “keep every option on the table.” She then said her deputy chief of staff, Marie Therese Dominguez, had been appointed to deal with Burbank Airport and Los Angeles International Airport expansion and noise issues.

How much of a role Dominguez will play and how much time she will devote to each airport’s problems will emerge over time, Garvey said.

“We want to make this work,” she said, adding, “It’s got to be solved locally.”

*

As with other airports located in urban areas, Garvey said she was aware of the imperative to balance competing requirements, ranging from the need to serve passengers and businesses to safety and noise considerations.

But that could be a tall order in the case of Burbank Airport, centerpiece of a feud that has bedeviled a generation of local politicians, going back to 1973 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that local governments could not interfere with airport safety or operations, a field reserved to the FAA.

The Burbank airport controversy has focused on efforts by the airport authority--the governing body set up by the three cities that own the airport--to construct a 19-gate terminal and the issue of whether the city governments can impose limits on flights there.

Airport officials have argued that the current terminal building should be moved because of FAA concerns that it is too close to the runways to meet modern safety standards. They also contend the structure’s size should be driven by passenger demand, now 4.7 million travelers per year.

Burbank’s elected leaders have fought the new terminal in court, saying that more gates will lead to more flights with more noise. They have insisted on a mandatory 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew and caps on the number of flights, which have been implemented in other communities, they said.

Burbank Mayor David Golonski echoed those sentiments Tuesday, saying the city had offered to explore opportunities for imposing growth limits at the airport, outside the Part 161 process. He referred to a federal code that provides for communities to appeal for curbs on airport operations, including noise limits, restrictions on aircraft types and curfews.

“If we could reach a mutually acceptable agreement, this will shorten what is sure to be a years-long process,” said Charles Lombardo, one of three Burbank representatives on the nine-member commission.

“We welcome Garvey’s presence. But talk is cheap, actions will speak louder than the words.”

*

Airport officials said they were pleased by the tenor of the meeting, which according to airport Executive Director Tom Greer, “stimulated a dialogue that was stagnant.”

But other officials said that despite Garvey’s role in the dispute, they could not guarantee the curfews and caps Burbank was demanding.

“This airport has long said it will commit to vigorously pursue Burbank’s agenda through a Part 161 study and live with whatever outcome it produces if Burbank will agree to do the same and cease holding the terminal hostage,” said airport spokesman Victor Gill.

“So far, that has not been an acceptable proposition” for the city, he contended.

Burbank Airport officials last week unveiled half a dozen possible steps to ease the aircraft noise problems of nearby residents, ranging from runway sound barriers to the curfews and flight caps sought by Burbank.

Consultants to the Airport Authority outlined 21 options with the potential to reduce noise in and around the airport. But, the study appeared to conclude that only about seven of the recommendations deserve serious consideration, and it was unclear how many of those, if any, would ultimately be adopted.

*

Still, to some that was beside the point.

“The fact is you can get into discussions about 150 and 161 studies until you’re blue in the face,” said Berman, who arranged in March for Garvey to make the visit. “But if the authority, the city of Burbank and the homeowners can come to a basic understanding, the FAA will be able to make it happen,” he said, referring to the agency’s ultimate authority over airport operations.

Valley Village Homeowners Assn. President Lori Dinkin said she felt Garvey’s presence was constructive, compared with a visit by the previous FAA head, David Hinson, in the early 1990s. “By her questions and her demeanor, I thought she was more receptive to our concerns,” she said. “That hasn’t happened before.”

“It sounds cliche,” said Citizens United of Burbank founder James Arone, whose Burbank-based group is opposed to airport expansion. “But I felt the meeting was a very good first step.”