Paul Clinton
BURBANK -- Hoping to revive talks for a replacement terminal, the
Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday agreed to a smaller
facility and curfew on flights at night before any construction.
The authority's newest proposal comes as the agency has actively begun
efforts to sell an 81-acre parcel of land thought to be ideal for the
terminal.
"We can still salvage the terminal project if we can reach an
agreement before the property sells," authority President Carl Meseck
wrote in a letter Monday to Burbank Mayor Bill Wiggins. "I hope you and
your colleagues will agree that we should have the elements of an
agreement in place."
The Airport Authority approved the proposal 6-2 at its Monday meeting.
Burbank Airport Commissioners Phil Berlin and Ingolf Klengler voted
against the deal. Burbank Airport Commissioner Charles Lombardo was
absent.
The airport submitted the proposal Monday to Burbank, seeking approval
to take possession of the land and begin construction. The application
marks the third formal proposal since May 1999, along with a handful of
informal ones since that time.
Wiggins was traveling and could not be reached for comment. But
Burbank Councilwoman Stacey Murphy, who with Councilman Dave Golonski
make up the council's ad-hoc negotiations team, said she liked the
airport's plan at first blush.
"We'll see what their application says," Murphy said. "But it sounds
like there is positive movement."
The city will consider the proposal under the state's Public Utilities
Commission code, which gives Burbank the ability to control land-use
decisions at the airport.
Contrary to earlier applications, the airport asked for a
250,000-square-foot terminal, down from the 330,000-square-foot building
in the never-realized August 1999 plan. The new terminal would have the
same number of gates, 14, as the current terminal, which counts 170,000
square feet of space.
In the plan, Meseck conceded that the authority must secure a flight
curfew -- something airport officials in earlier times refused to do --
before the terminal is built. On July 17, the authority launched a Part
161 noise study, an application to the Federal Aviation Administration
for the measure. The FAA is likely to rule on the study in early 2002.
The airport has also agreed to pay Burbank for lost property taxes and
give the Burbank City Council "total control" over any future airport
expansion.
Glendale Airport Commissioner Gerald Briggs said he hoped the proposal
will answer lingering questions about whether the terminal will ever be
built. Talks have been stalled since mid-June, when the city and airport
released competing terminal proposals.
The city's proposal called for the 250,000-square-foot terminal,
curfew and tax payment. But it also included a request for other noise
controls, rotating presidency at the authority and super-majority voting
(approval on contracts and other items by two of three commissioners from
each city).
In any event, Briggs said the recent application should spur progress.
"We hope Burbank will take some action on it," Briggs said. "This was
the Airport Authority's best effort to try to resolve the issue."
