Paul Clinton
AIRPORT DISTRICT -- Keeping their cards close to the vest, Burbank
officials aren't saying whether they will exercise an option to buy all
or part of the 81 acres set aside for a new terminal at Burbank Airport.
Burbank must reach a decision by July 31. Burbank officials triggered
the deadline May 24, shortly after the city and the
Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority failed to reach a deal for a
replacement terminal.
The airport conceded the purchase option to Burbank in an Aug. 31
escrow deal with the city that came on the heels of the Framework for
Settlement, an informal terminal deal that has since fallen by the
wayside.
Council members would not say whether they have reached a decision,
but acknowledged they have been discussing the matter.
"No comment," Councilman Dave Golonski said Friday. "That's a closed
session item."
To buy the land, city officials said Burbank would need to scour its
coffers for between $30 and $50 million. A hefty price to pay with no
terminal agreement in sight and no specific plans to sell or develop the
property, critics have charged.
"It's not the best scenario," City Manager Bud Ovrom said. "Ownership
gives us additional leverage in our discussion with the airport. But the
{escrow agreement} gives us a lot of leverage."
Former councilman Ted McConkey said using city funds to buy the land
would put a major dent in Burbank's treasury.
"In the first place, we don't have it. We'd have to borrow it,"
McConkey said. "That's going to put us further in debt."
Under the terms of the escrow deal, the airport will be required to
sell off the land to a third party if Burbank doesn't exercise its option
to buy.
Airport and city negotiators tried to hash out a new terminal deal in
the months following the framework's collapse, but talks between the two
sides have been infrequent in recent months.
On July 13, city and airport officials met with Glendale City Manager
Jim Starbird to give that city a status report on the situation. No
elected officials attended the meeting, Golonski said.
Burbank and the airport exchanged differing proposals in mid-June. But
noise relief, as always, was the key sticking point. The two sides
proposed different hours for a possible nighttime flight curfew and
failed to agree on additional measures to reduce traffic and jet noise in
future years.
"The sides have both given each other their statements," airport
spokesman Victor Gill said. "But I don't think there's any active
discussion."
The airport's rejection of the city's deal has caused some anxious
moments in City Hall. The central sticking point, Golonski said, is the
airport's refusal to offer substantive guarantees that would protect
Burbank residents from the negative impacts of a new terminal.
"It would be wrong to read the two proposals and come to the
conclusion that there are only minor issues here," Golonski said. "It's
not purely noise. Impacts of growth at the airport are traffic, noise,
air quality."
