Airport gets leeway on noise

CITY HALL — The City Council backed a local administrative law judge’s decision that allows Bob Hope Airport to continue to operate outside of state-mandated noise restrictions while it works to reduce the burden for those living in the airport’s vicinity.

The decision was handed down in December by Judge Samuel D. Reyes, who admitted that “noise generated by airport operations continues to be a problem,” but that granting a three-year variance “is in the public interest.”

“I’m quite satisfied with the judge’s ruling,” Mayor Marsha Ramos said.

The ruling was only a recommendation to the California Department of Transportation — which oversees airport noise levels — leaving room for the council to deliberate and for the department to ultimately grant a variance should they decide to do so, airport spokesman Victor Gill said.

The council did not vote on the issue but agreed with the ruling, leaving the door open for Caltrans to grant the extension.

They now have up to 100 days to grant the variance, Gill said.

Part of Reyes’ decision hinged on whether the airport continues to progress in its effort to lessen noise for those who live and work under the din of departing and arriving planes.

In recommending the variance, Reyes did what was necessary for the airport to continue its noise-lessening measures, Gill said.

“This offers us a chance to demonstrate what good things have happened through the years,” he said. “This process ensures forward progress is made.”

Those measures include establishing a curfew on flights from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., phasing out operations of noisier turbojets and continuing to expand the residential acoustical treatment program for homes close to the airport.

Granting the airport a variance is nothing new, said Dan Reemer, an attorney with Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell, the city’s special airport counsel.

“Since the 1970s, the airport has always operated pursuant to a variance because of incompatible land use surrounding Bob Hope Airport,” he said. “The modern era [of issuing variances] began in 1998 when a three-year variance was issued and the [Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport] Authority developed a plan to reduce noise. In 2002, Caltrans required further implementation of noise-reducing measures, and in 2005 an application for a new three-year variance was adopted.”