City Sues Burbank Airport Again Over Expansion Plan

Making good on its threat of renewed legal action, the city of Burbank again filed suit against Burbank Airport in state court Friday in a bid to block construction of a planned 19-gate terminal building.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carl J. West ruled last February that Burbank could not use local land-use ordinances to block construction on 130 acres of land owned by Lockheed-Martin Corp., reasoning that the city had relinquished that right by signing a joint powers agreement to run the airport with the cities of Glendale and Pasadena.

Nevertheless, Burbank pressed ahead with a new case Friday, maintaining that the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority planned to build its facility on land zoned for manufacturing uses and had not come to the city to request a zoning change.

“This lawsuit could be simply resolved if the Airport Authority would state unequivocally and simply that it will comply with our zoning,” said Peter Kirsch, an attorney representing Burbank in its legal fight with the airport. “The dilemma we face is that the authority has said in court it will comply with our zoning. But it has been publicly promoting a terminal expansion plan that does not comply with our zoning.”

Airport officials disputed that assertion, saying that they have presented plans that are in the conceptual design stage, rather than the final stage, as Burbank officials have contended.

A 1977 agreement among the three cities to jointly run the airport “expressly and unequivocally grants to the Authority the right to acquire land . . . to exercise the power of eminent domain, and to do all acts necessary or desirable to accomplish the purposes of the Authority,” West wrote in his February decision.

Kirsch said that Friday’s lawsuit addresses a situation not covered by West’s ruling.

“The airport and Judge West both made the distinction between the state public utilities code and Burbanks’ zoning and land-use ordinances,” Kirsch said. “The judge and the Authority both said that the airport must comply with Burbank’s zoning and land-use laws. And this is intended to make sure they do.”

The new lawsuit is the latest tussle in a long-running fight over expansion plans for the existing 14-gate terminal. The larger dispute stretches back to a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that barred Burbank from interfering in airport safety and operations.