"Objection raised to Burbank airport security project"

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Objection raised to airport security project
By Alex Dobuzinskis
The Los Angeles (CA) Daily News


BURBANK - The Bob Hope Airport plans to build a facility so screeners can
check bags away from the Terminal B lobby, but some residents are forcing
the City Council to take another look at the project. 

Stan Hyman and David Piroli oppose the project, saying it violates a 2005
agreement between Burbank and the airport meant to temporarily block airport
expansion. They have appealed the city's decision to approve the screening
improvements. 

Airport officials, however, say it's a matter of safety. 

"If you have a suspect bag that really could have an explosive device in it,
it's much better not to have it in a public area," said Victor Gill,
spokesman for the airport. 

Because of the appeal from Hyman and Piroli, the Burbank City Council is
scheduled to make a final decision Jan. 22 on the airport's request to build
the facility. 

Meanwhile, the airport is receiving public comment through Jan. 21 on the
environmental review for the project, which would be a 6,500-square-foot
baggage screening facility encased in a blast-resistant one-story structure.


The facility - estimated to cost $8 million to $10 million to build - would
be located south of Terminal B, which it would serve. 

Terminal A already has a similar system, which takes bags on conveyor belts
to an isolated inspection area. 

The airport is going forward with plans to build the facility, although Los
Angeles International Airport commissioners have scrapped 
plans for a similar but larger system that would go into five terminals at
LAX. 

In turning over plans for the project to airlines at LAX, commissioners last
month said the project was becoming too expensive and too technologically
complicated for Los Angeles World Airports to undertake. 

Residents around the Bob Hope Airport have long voiced complaints about
noise, and the 2005 development agreement was meant to calm their concerns
about the airport's expanding. 

Hyman, 73, who is retired from a career in real estate, is a foe of airport
expansion. He said the baggage screening system proposed for the Bob Hope
Airport would allow for more bags - and more passengers - to be processed
than with the current system. 

"They're using safety as a red herring or a canard to try to frighten people
into thinking that it's unsafe," he said. 

Hyman said his main objection is not to the proposed screening facility, but
to the city's deciding that the project is allowed under the 2005 agreement.


"We have an agreement. Let's either stick to the agreement or go in and
change the agreement," he said. 

A private attorney hired by the city has determined that the agreement
allows the project because the federal Transportation Safety Administration
needs it to house new scanning equipment. 

The TSA plans to spend $2.5 million for scanning equipment called the CTX
9000 that would operate in the new facility, Gill said. If the project is
approved, the screening facility would be operational by early 2009, he
said. 

HOW TO COMMENT 

Submit written comments on the Bob Hope Airport baggage screening plan to
Dan Feger, Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, 2627 Hollywood Way,
Burbank, CA 91505. For more information, go to
www.ci.burbank.ca.us/airport/current/bgpaa.html.


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