Hearing Set for Tonight on Airport Expansion

Several hundred people are expected to trek to the Burbank Airport Hilton tonight as city officials make their first public pitch for a proposed terminal at Burbank Airport.

The town hall meeting--the first of three public sessions scheduled between now and October--will flesh out the fine points of the terminal proposal and give citizens an opportunity to voice objections to the plan, city leaders said.

When completed, the 14-gate terminal would close from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. every day and could not be expanded without a mandatory nighttime curfew, which negotiators contend will ensure that residents are protected from excessive noise.

But opponents maintain that the terminal closure will do nothing to stop early morning and late night flights that are most upsetting to neighbors.

Burbank officials said the draft plan is consistent with past pledges to limit the size of the terminal, slated at one time for 19 gates with growth to 27 gates.

Plans for the new terminal call for demolishing the existing facility--built in 1930--and replacing it with a 330,000-square-foot terminal with 5,000 parking spaces.

The new facility would be located northeast of the airport’s main runway on a 130-acre parcel formerly owned by Lockheed Martin.

Noisy, older jets, known as Stage II aircraft, would be phased out over the next five years. The planes make up about 30% of the general aviation aircraft at Burbank Airport.