Noise From Burbank Airport

* “It’s early Monday morning. I haven’t got a good night’s sleep in days because of a stubborn virus and I was hoping to get an extra hour of sleep before the kids awaken. Yet before the alarm goes off, I receive another wake-up call--the roar of a jet from Burbank Airport flying overhead shortly after 6 a.m., well before the ‘voluntary curfew’ time of 7 a.m. As jet after jet roars overhead I reluctantly drag my weary body out of bed.”

This story, compiled from neighbors’ and personal experiences, illustrates one of many inconveniences purposely bestowed upon southeast San Fernando Valley residents due to the unwillingness of Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena to work with their Los Angeles neighbors to share the noise burden from Burbank Airport. Now, The Times argues that the settlement agreement Burbank officials offered last fall should be quickly adopted so that airport passengers can have more conveniences at a new airport terminal (“An Endless Holding Pattern,” Valley editorial, Feb. 27).

Convenience is hardly the issue. To argue that the compromise agreement should be adopted due to a lack of adequate seating or airport coffee shops is not only ludicrous. It is insulting to the thousands of residents inconvenienced daily by having to cut short phone conversations, close doors and windows, forgo backyard barbecues or simply be awakened at the crack of dawn due to aircraft noise.

Yes, the settlement would mandate the same number of gates--but with its ban on eastbound departures and lack of meaningful noise mitigations, it would also mandate the same flight patterns, with at least 90% of flights and noise routed over southeast Valley communities like Studio City.

Yes, we support a new terminal that would be safer and offer the conveniences of modern airports. But the convenience of southeast Valley residents must also be addressed through adoption of share the noise mitigations.

TONY LUCENTE

President

Studio City Residents Assn.