Burbank Power Shift May Affect Airport Expansion : Aviation: A new council majority vows to order a referendum to reduce the project and control growth.
BURBANK — Even before the results of the April general election are in, a new majority is emerging on the Burbank City Council whose members state they will order a referendum on the controversial issue of airport expansion.
The anti-expansion bloc not only intends to ensure that the public will be heard, but is determined to see plans for a larger Burbank Airport scaled back, according to interviews following last week’s primary election.
Supporters say expansion is necessary to serve natural growth in demand for air travel in the San Fernando Valley and surrounding areas. Opponents, led by residents who live under the flight path in Burbank and in Los Angeles, say they fear the noise and traffic pollution that expansion will bring.
The present council has generally favored expansion by a 3-2 margin. In November, Council members George Battey Jr. and Robert Bowne joined Mayor Bill Wiggins in defeating a proposed referendum.
But with Bowne and Battey retiring and two new council members arriving in May, the balance of power is certain to shift.
Bob Kramer, a newspaper columnist and painting contractor who won outright last week, said he supports the idea of a popular vote.
Competing for the council’s last open seat in the April runoff election are Mary Lou Howard, a former mayor, and Ted McConkey, a retired aerospace worker. Both favor putting the matter to a vote, and McConkey said he favors a binding referendum.
The Feb. 28 primary “was a wake-up call and a vote of no confidence in (airport officials), generally, and airport commissioners specifically,†said McConkey, who has been endorsed by expansion critic and council member Susan Spanos.
“They should know the Burbank City Council and the people of Burbank will assert their right to control growth out there,†he added.
Airport officials, meanwhile, continue to move forward with the first phase of the controversial, multimillion-dollar project.
They want to build a larger terminal that would improve the airport’s ability to serve the public by adding up to 10 commercial flights a day to the present average of 93 and enough space to accommodate 5.4 million passengers flying into and out of Burbank in three years.
On Monday, airport officials discussed how best to use a $4.7-million federal grant for improving street access to and from the terminal, among other things. Planned is the widening of a portion of Hollywood Way leading to the airport’s entrance.
Projections provided by airport officials show that automobile traffic in and out of Burbank Airport will surge in nine years to about 1,980 vehicles during the average peak hour, more than double that of four years ago.
As an increasingly popular and convenient destination for air travelers in the San Fernando Valley, the Burbank Airport reached a record 4.6 million passengers during the 1994 fiscal year, about 10% of the volume at Los Angeles International Airport.
The growing opposition in Burbank is based on worry about increased aircraft noise and traffic a terminal nearly three times the present size might bring.
The trend is appreciated by a longtime foe of expansion, the city of Los Angeles. City officials representing residents in the southeast San Fernando Valley have unsuccessfully sued twice to halt expansion. Despite their most recent setback in December, Los Angeles officials saw the Burbank elections as a cause for optimism.
“I would not say we’re delighted to see the project stopped, but we’re glad to see a majority in Burbank that seems to have a better understanding that there are environmental consequences,†said Los Angeles Deputy City Atty. Keith Pritsker.
Airport officials contend the need to push the project along quickly has less to do with the changing dynamics on the Burbank council than other factors, such as buying land needed for the new terminal in a timely manner.
One of the first steps taken by airport officials to finance the land purchase was to seek the Burbank City Council’s approval for issuing $100 million in tax-exempt bonds.
Federal law requires a public hearing before the council can approve the bonds. A hearing has been set for March 21 over the objections of Spanos and Vice Mayor Dave Golonski, who have said the decision should be postponed until the new council is seated.
While acknowledging that new council members may not take office soon enough to stop the bonds, Kramer, Howard and McConkey said they would vote to deny a change in land-use that is required before the new terminal can be built.
Currently, about 30 acres for the expansion that Burbank Airport officials hope to acquire from the Lockheed Corp. are designated for industrial use. It must be rezoned for airport use before the expansion can take place.
That issue, expected to come before the new council, could provide a powerful bargaining tool for the new majority.
Spanos declined to predict how she would vote on the matter. But she acknowledged that the new council could require airport officials to obtain a special permit to limit aircraft gates and operations before rezoning the land.
“People are scared, afraid and terribly concerned about more gates and more flights, more so than they ever have been,†said Howard, who has been endorsed by Golonski and Wiggins.
Airport spokesman Victor Gill said he is unsure what airport officials will do if the request to rezone land is denied.
“I don’t think that’s been thought through. We would work with the city to get our project approved. There is now, and always will be, change in the council members of the three cities,†he said, referring to Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena, which each appoint three commissioners to the airport’s operating board.
The election has prompted at least one airport official to say that he would be willing to support a much smaller terminal than the one being proposed.
“I’ve got eyes and ears. I can read the tea leaves,†said Brian Bowman of Burbank, who serves at the pleasure of the Burbank City Council as president of the airport’s nine-member operating board. “I read what these people are saying and hear what these people are saying. Some are saying they don’t want to see any increase.â€
Burbank council members, he added, “certainly have the control and the ability to influence what the authority builds at that site.â€
Glendale has taken no official position on the idea of a popular vote, but the mayor of Pasadena, Kathryn Nack, said she is opposed to such a ballot measure.
“The three cities are equal partners,†she said. “The people of Burbank may vote one way, but the cities of Glendale and Pasadena have as much equal say in what happens there.â€
Golonski, the council’s most outspoken critic of airport expansion, declined to comment. Wiggins could not be reached.
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