Airport Demands Stronger Assurance From Burbank

Signaling that sharp differences remain, Burbank Airport’s top official on Friday said that the city of Burbank has failed to give the airport a solid guarantee that it will approve the new airport terminal.

The Burbank Airport official criticized a recent letter from the city of Burbank that had been intended to assure airport officials that Burbank will not stand in the way of a new terminal project.

Joyce Streator, president of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, said Friday that she needs a stronger sign of support than the two-page letter faxed Wednesday from Burbank City Manager Robert R. “Bud” Ovrom.

That letter said the terminal plan “is basically consistent with long-standing city policy,” but that final approval could come only after public hearings and a majority vote of the Burbank City Council. Burbank officials had touted the letter as another sign of the emerging spirit of compromise between Burbank and the airport authority, which have been fighting over the terminal project for years.

But Streator was not impressed.

“This is too vague,” Streator said Friday, shaking a copy of the letter at a meeting of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. in Glendale. “We wanted something concrete, something with specific dates for public hearings. And we wanted it from council members, not staff.”

Ovrom intended the letter to be a good-faith gesture toward the Airport Authority, which must decide by Monday if it is going to pay an installment of $30 million for the terminal site. Streator said the thumbs-up should have come from Burbank’s five elected City Council members, since they are the ones who will ultimately approve or reject the terminal plan.

Streator now says she’s not sure what action, if any, the authority will take Monday.

Burbank officials, however, stand by the letter, saying it is as solid a signal of support as the airport is going to get.

“We’ve told [airport officials] that they’re going to get their terminal,” said Burbank Mayor Stacey Murphy, who sits on the council. “But they want more. They want us to look them in the eye and say, ‘Yes,’ before we even have a public hearing. We can’t do that.”

For years, airport officials have said the current terminal, which serves an average of 13,000 passengers a day, is too old, too close to the runway, and too small to support the area’s burgeoning transportation needs. City officials have indicated they want a new terminal but have voiced concerns about more noise from planes and increased traffic.

During the past month, the two sides have narrowed their differences. The nine-member airport board agreed to scale back the number of gates from 16 to 14 and offered to seek a curfew on night flights--though the curfew issue will ultimately be decided by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The revised plan was the biggest step yet toward a compromise, Burbank officials said, and they expressed appreciation that the authority had decreased the number of gates.

At the VICA meeting Friday, other politicians urged the two sides to use the momentum they have generated to finalize a plan for the terminal.

“From what I can see, the parties are now not that far apart,” said state Sen. Adam Schiff, (D-Burbank). “This is the best opportunity in years we’ve had to resolve this.”

Minutes later, Streator and Murphy were arguing about whose fault it was that the city didn’t have time to hold public hearings on the terminal proposal before the court-ordered deadline to pay Lockheed Martin, which used to have a fighter-plane factory on the land. The authority has said it is reluctant to pay the next installment of $30 million (it has already put down a $37-million deposit on the $86-million site) without clear assurances from Burbank that it will approve the plan.

If the authority doesn’t make the payment, it may lose some of the deposit and the right to the land, which it seized via eminent domain.

At the close of the meeting, Assemblyman Scott Wildman (D-Glendale) told Streator and Murphy: “Let’s stop the bickering and come together.”

But that didn’t quite happen. Murphy left the meeting firm that the city could not make any promises about the outcome of the public hearings, in which many Burbank residents are anticipated to speak out against the expansion. Streator hadn’t budged, either.

“Without a stronger assurance, I have no idea what we’re going to do Monday,” she said.

Monday, actually, is not the drop-dead deadline, Streator acknowledged. The authority has a 10-day grace period after Monday to make the $30-million payment.