Airport officials go big with Bob Hope terminal plans
The new terminal planned for Bob Hope Airport would be up to 68% larger than the current facility, officials said this week.
The replacement terminal would have 14 gates, the same as the current building. However, it’s planned to be 355,102 square feet in size, compared to the existing 210,599-square-foot terminal, according to information presented to the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday.
Dan Feger, the airport’s executive director, said Tuesday that the size of the new terminal might eventually be pared down, but the current figure will be used in the project’s environmental impact study, which is slated to begin before the end of the year.
The existing terminal is 80 years old and would be demolished to make way for expanded airplane taxi-way space after the completion of a new terminal.
Airport officials say a new terminal is needed because the current building is too close to the runways — 250 feet instead of the required 750 feet — according to Federal Aviation Administration safety standards.
The additional space in the new terminal would be used to add features such as accessibility for the disabled, more and larger restrooms, larger waiting areas, expanded security screening areas and more spacious baggage claims.
The proposed terminal would be up to 144,503 square feet larger than the existing one and would include more publicly usable space because some of the airport authority’s functions – which take up 13,000 square feet — would be moved to another building on the airport property.
Feger said moving some of the authority’s administrative operations out of the proposed terminal makes sense.
“Why not minimize the size and cost of the terminal building … Money is a big deal here, it’s a pretty expensive building,” Feger said. “We’re not making the building just to make it big.”
Feger said that in a best-case scenario, the project would go before Burbank voters in summer 2015. Measure B, passed by local voters in 2000, requires voter approval before a new terminal can be constructed.
If approved, the replacement terminal would be complete in five to seven years.
“If the stars and moon all line up, this is the most optimistic time that it takes to put all the funding in place,” he said.
Funding will likely come from selling a 58-acre lot the airport owns, known as the “opportunity site,” as well as from Congress and the FAA.
The airport authority will continue to seek public input about its plans for a replacement terminal and the opportunity site at town hall meetings slated for Oct. 29 at Burbank City Hall, 275 E. Olive Ave., and Nov. 14 at the Burbank Community Services Building, 150 N. Third St.
Both meetings will begin at 6 p.m.
More information about the proposed terminal and the upcoming meetings can be found on the airport’s website, bobhopeairport.com.
--
Follow Daniel Siegal on Google+ and on Twitter: @Daniel_Siegal.
ALSO:
Citizens help families of Burbank crash victims