Airport Panel Seeks Smaller Terminal

Continuing a push for a compromise, Burbank Airport’s governing board voted Monday to ask Burbank to approve a proposal for a scaled-down terminal building, airport officials said.

The application is one of several already submitted to the city since airport and Burbank negotiators agreed to a framework for settlement of the dispute in August 1999, said Burbank Airport spokesman Victor Gill.

With Monday’s vote, the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority approved cutting the size of the planned 330,000-square-foot terminal to 255,000 square feet.

Burbank officials have said it will not approve a new terminal without a ban on night flights. Under FAA rules, the airport cannot impose such restrictions without approval of a long and exhaustive noise study.

Burbank city leaders must also submit any airport plan to city voters for final approval.

Airport officials said they were hopeful the new plan--including a requirement for a curfew, annual payments to the city to make up for lost property taxes and Burbank’s demands for total control over the future of the airport--will be accepted.

City officials said they had not seen the proposal and would not immediately comment. For the last two decades, the airport has been trying to replace its 1930s-era building.

The city has consistently opposed those plans, citing concerns over additional jet noise and ground traffic. After decades of political recriminations and numerous lawsuits, a compromise agreement between the airport and city appeared close at hand.

But there was opposition to the de facto curfew, which would be imposed by closing the passenger terminal between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. but keeping the runways open to get around the federally required noise study. A proposed ban on easterly takeoffs also was criticized. Eventually, negotiations for terminal construction sputtered and city and airport officials missed a deadline for approving a new terminal, launching a process that could eventually result in the sale of land earmarked for the $300-million project.

Last month, Burbank officials said that they would not buy 81 acres slated for a new Burbank Airport terminal, a decision that could force sale of the property for non-airport use. Airport officials said they hoped it would not come to that.

The Airport Authority bought a portion of the 130-acre Plant B-6 site that the airport acquired last summer from Lockheed Martin for $86 million. As part of the agreement, the airport took title to 49 acres, and the rest of the site was held in a trust during negotiations over the terminal.

But the agreement also specified that the land be put up for sale if Burbank declined to purchase it.

“We’re trying hard to find reasonable middle ground while there is still time to do so,” said Airport Authority President Carl Meseck.