"L.A. mayor weighs in on Burbank airport curfew"

Saturday, June 14, 2008

L.A. mayor weighs in on airport curfew
 Public comment period ends with Villaraigosa saying that the edict would be
improper and counterproductive.
By Jeremy Oberstein
The Burbank (CA) Leader


GLENDALE - The public comment period on a proposed curfew at Bob Hope
Airport ended Friday with a flood of opposition coming from Los Angeles City
Hall, where Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the proposed nighttime ban is
counterproductive and improper.

But support for the ban still heavily outweighed opposition to the proposal,
airport officials said.

The crux of Villaraigosa's opposition, which came in the form of a letter he
wrote to the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, centered on a slew
of flights that are projected to shift from Bob Hope to six regional
airports if the ban on flights from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. is approved by the
Federal Aviation Administration.

If the ban is enacted, more than 30 flights will be rerouted to Van Nuys
Airport and five flights to Los Angeles International Airport. Other flights
will be transferred to airports in Ontario, Long Beach, Camarillo and
Pacoima, airport officials said.

"I believe it is both inappropriate and ill-timed for Bob Hope to
unilaterally pursue an overnight curfew that will increase the very noise
impacts at those airports that Bob Hope is looking to reduce," Villaraigosa
wrote.

But Bob Hope Airport spokesman Victor Gill said that the nighttime noise
transfer to Van Nuys would be minimal and that support for the proposed ban
is still voluminous.

At an airport authority-run public meeting in May, officials recorded 166
public comments with more than 120 supporting the proposed ban and 33
against the measure.

The authority will wait until its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday to
present a more updated picture on the number of comments received, but "it's
going to run double that in terms of individual parties," Gill said.

After that meeting, the authority plans to review the comments it has
received and conduct more research on issues that need to be studied en
route to eventual submission to the FAA, which could be in August, Gill said

Los Angeles City Councilman Tony Cardenas and corporate aviation groups and
businesses that stand to be affected by the shifting operations have also
spoken out against the proposal.

Cardenas, whose district includes Van Nuys Airport, asked the Los Angeles
City Council on Friday to support a proposition against the proposed ban.

Burbank Mayor Dave Golonski and the airport authority's Interim Executive
Director Dan Feger implored the council to reject the measure.

"Implementation of a curfew at Bob Hope Airport will result in a net
reduction in noise for Los Angeles residents," Feger said. "The less than
one decibel of shifted noise to Van Nuys must be contrasted with up to a
six-decibel reduction in the noise impacts on Sun Valley, North Hollywood
and other areas of Los Angeles and Burbank. This is real net noise reduction
for Los Angeles residents.

"Your passage of this resolution will effectively work against your own
efforts to seek Part 161 access restrictions at your own airports."

The issue was tabled until Tuesday, when the council is slated to once again
consider the issue, officials said.

Still, the proposed ban has enjoyed widespread congressional support from
Reps. Adam Schiff and Howard Berman, whose districts include Bob Hope
Airport and the surrounding area.

"It's an important quality of life issue for Burbank and the adjacent
communities," Schiff said. "It's a cost effective proposal and it meets the
criteria that the FAA has set and that Congress has set."

That quality of life issue cuts across city boundaries and Burbank's attempt
to provide nighttime noise relief to its neighbors might be counter
productive, according to Villaraigosa.

"The mutual desire of neighbors of all three Los Angeles-area airports for
relief from overnight aviation noise presents an opportunity for good faith
cooperation and good will that would be lost were the Federal Aviation
Administration to approve Bob Hope Airport's request," he wrote. "I strongly
believe the FAA should not do so."

Schiff brushed aside concerns that those in Van Nuys and Los Angeles would
be adversely affected by the proposed flight shift and said he might support
future curfews at regional airports. But he warned that if Burbank's
proposed ban progresses, other airports' attempts to ground nighttime
flights would not necessarily be approved based solely on Bob Hope's
application.

"I believe curfews remain a fairly extraordinary remedy," he said.

"I don't see this creating a cascading effect around the country. This is
part of the analysis FAA does. Each case is very much individualized. It's
different for each airport and it would be hard to extrapolate from airport
or one community.

"I'm very interested in seeing what the FAA does."

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