Paul Clinton
AIRPORT DISTRICT -- Hoping to revive talks for a replacement terminal,
the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority has agreed to a smaller
terminal 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 Monday letter to 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's board 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 to the city Monday, 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
Councilwoman Stacey Murphy, who with Councilman Dave Golonski make up the
council's ad-hoc negotiations team, said she liked the 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.
The airport asked for a 250,000 square foot terminal, down from the
330,000 square foot building proposed in August 1999. 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 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, a 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."
