Rogan Assails FAA for Delayed Finding

Rep. Jim Rogan (R-Glendale) turned up the heat on the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday, criticizing the agency for delaying a decision on the legality of a mandatory curfew at Burbank Airport.

FAA Administrator Jane Garvey wrote Rogan on March 4 that the agency would determine whether local government entities could impose noise restrictions such as mandatory curfews without FAA approval.

Shortly afterward, Marie Therese Dominguez, Garvey’s deputy chief of staff and counsel, said a decision on the issue would made made within a few weeks.

But in a sharply worded letter Wednesday, Rogan said the FAA delays were undermining efforts to relocate the passenger terminal and compromising safety.

“As you know, for over six months I have urged you to make an official determination regarding issues which are crippling efforts to relocate the passenger terminal at the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport,” Rogan told Garvey in his letter.

“As has been reiterated to you, the passenger terminal sits just 300 feet from the runway, and disaster is inevitable unless the terminal is relocated.”

FAA officials were not immediately available for comment. A Rogan aide said the congressman also has not gotten a response from the agency.

In his letter, Rogan noted that he postponed a summit with local officials and House Transportation Aviation Subcommittee Chairman John J. Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.) after “two additional months and dozens of promises.”

Burbank city leaders have been pressing for the mandatory 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. restriction on passenger jets to replace existing voluntary limits. But airport officials say they cannot take such action without a costly FAA study.

Garvey has asked FAA lawyers to determine whether such a curfew can be imposed without a study.