FAA denies curfew at Bob Hope

AIRPORT DISTRICT — The Federal Aviation Administration this morning announced that it rejected the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority’s application for nighttime noise relief at Bob Hope Airport.

The airport authority’s proposal — nine years and $7 million in the making — would have forbid air traffic at Bob Hope Airport between 10 p.m. and 6:59 a.m. The application was the first of its kind to make it through the review process.

Commissioners, who met in a closed meeting after hearing the announcement, said they needed the next two weeks to digest details of the FAA’s document.

“The commission is deeply disappointed in the denial of its application, and renewed its commitment to seeking meaningful nighttime noise relief,” said Joyce Streator, president of the airport authority. “The airport invested in excess of $7 million over the past nine years in research, analysis and public comment, as well as innumerable staff hours, to create the application. We are disappointed, but we haven’t given up the fight.”

The FAA, in a 43-page letter released Monday, ruled that a curfew at Bob Hope was unreasonable, burdening air traffic and commerce.

The letter gave alternatives for dealing with airport noise, and offered the authority an invitation to challenge the decision in federal court.

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