Bob Hope Airport wants to replace terminal

With Bob Hope Airport looking to replace its 83-year-old terminal, Burbank council members made it clear this week that they want the city to have a say in those plans as well as any future development of a 58-acre plot of airport-owned land known as the “B6” parcel.

At a study session on Tuesday, Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority President Susan Georgino told the Council that the airport’s plans for future development include demolishing the existing terminal and building a new one farther away from the airport’s runways.

The current terminal, in addition to not meeting modern seismic safety standards, does not meet guidelines established by the Federal Aviation Administration for space between runways and structures.

The new terminal would have 14 gates, the same as the current building, and would require the same number of parking spaces — 6,600.

Because of Measure B passed in 2000 and a development agreement between the city and airport that is set to expire on March 15, 2015, construction of a new terminal would require voter approval and then the city council would vote on the project.

City Attorney Amy Albano said that if the city and airport cannot agree on a plan for the B6 property by that deadline, it must be sold to a third party.

The airport would still need voter approval and then council’s OK before it could build a new terminal on a piece of property to the west of the B6 parcel.

Mayor Emily Gabel-Luddy said that it is important for the airport’s new terminal be built under the terms of the development agreement.

“This needs to be developed with the input of the people,” she said. “At the end of the day, the residents of Burbank vote on the new terminal.”

The study session came two weeks after the city and airport co-hosted a public outreach meeting to solicit input for their joint study aimed at producing a plan for improving transportation options in the area as well as developing the B6 parcel, which is part of the land left vacant when Lockheed left the site.

Councilman David Gordon, however, said he felt that level of outreach was insufficient for a project as significant as replacing the airport’s terminal, and that before any development proceeds, the airport must draw up a comprehensive development plan.

“The people of Burbank, through the fate of location, bear the brunt of the good and the bad that may emanate from an airport,” he said. “You have to have clear and understandable planning, and planning that is adhered to… You need a master plan.”

Gordon admitted that such an effort would likely take several years, but the development agreement’s expiration deadline is “a date on a calendar, it can be changed.”

The council will hold a study session focused on noise issues related to the airport in September.

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