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Website for possible Bob Hope Airport project takes off

By Chad Garland
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Hoping to help residents stay informed about ongoing efforts to build a 14-gate replacement terminal at Bob Hope Airport, the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority has launched a new website dedicated to the issue —BURreplacementterminal.com.

“We encourage all community members to visit the website and learn about the proposal to build a safer, modern 14-gate replacement terminal,” said Frank Quintero, airport authority president, in a statement released this week.

The authority will also host a public meeting next week to discuss residents’ concerns and comments about a study of the replacement terminal’s potential environmental and community impacts.

The new website went live Tuesday and features a rotating slide show of airport images and high-level details of the proposed project, such as a commitment to stick to 14 gates “and no more,” as well as protections against future airport expansion.

Below that, a pitch: 85 years after the central section of Bob Hope Airport was built, “it’s time for a replacement terminal.”

Airport officials have said they’re hoping the item will appear on the November 2016 ballot.

However, there’s an option for a smaller version of a replacement terminal west of the existing one and the north-south runway that airport officials believe they could construct without City Council or voter approval.

But they’ve said that’s not the preferred building or location.

Airport spokeswoman Lucy Burghdorf said the website was created to put all the replacement terminal information in one place.

“People just want to know about the replacement terminal,” she said. “They don’t want to have to go hunting through our [main] website.”

Visitors to the website can dig into the specifics of the proposal, such as a plan to give Burbank authority members veto power over measures that could change enforcement of noise rules or the number of airline gates at the terminal. They will also be able to sign up to have progress reports and updates emailed to them.

As efforts related to the replacement terminal move forward, authority members are turning to social media as another way to engage the public. Twitter users can post questions or comments about the project with the hashtag #replaceBURterminal. The airport’s Twitter account is @fly_BUR.

Residents will have an opportunity to learn about the project and provide input on the scope of an environmental study that will examine its potential impacts during a workshop/meeting from 5 to 8 p.m. next Thursday at Buena Vista Library, 300 N. Buena Vista St., Burbank.

“We want to give people an opportunity to come and learn,” Burghdorf said.

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Chad Garland, chad.garland@latimes.com

Twitter: @chadgarland

Chad Garland

Chad Garland covered the city of Burbank and Bob Hope Airport for the Burbank Leader until 2016. Previously, he has covered Arizona’s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., for Cronkite News Service and Oregon’s Legislature for the Associated Press. His work investigating questionable veterans’ charities as part of the award-winning News21 national investigative project “Back Home” earned a “Best in Business” award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in 2013. Before becoming a reporter, he spent more than a decade in various assignments related to national defense. An Illinois native, his first California address was at Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego. He has degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Arizona State University, as well as a diploma from the Army’s Defense Language Institute in Monterey, where he learned to speak Russian.

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