Airport Wins Round in Fight Over Terminal
A state appeals court has handed Burbank Airport a victory over the city of Los Angeles, unanimously upholding an environmental study clearing the airport’s plans for a new terminal.
The city of Los Angeles sued the Bubank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority in 1994, arguing that the airport failed to address aircraft noise and automobile traffic issues in the environmental impact study of its plans to build a 19-gate terminal.
The city’s case was rejected in 1994 by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert H. O’Brien, who held that the airport had complied with environmental laws.
O’Brien’s decision was upheld Thursday by a panel of three California Court of Appeal judges in a 34-page ruling written by Judge Patti S. Kitching.
“This means the terminal project is no longer under any cloud of challenge, under state or federal environmental laws,” said airport spokesman Victor Gill. “We’re perfectly happy to go back to court on some of the smaller projects that Los Angeles is focusing on now.”
Los Angeles Deputy City Atty. Keith Pritsker countered that there was a silver lining for Los Angeles because the court allowed the city to go back to trial to challenge some provisions of the airport project.
Like the city of Burbank, Los Angeles has argued that a new terminal building at Burbank Airport would cause a hardship for communities under the airport’s flight path.
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