VAN NUYS : Backing Grows for Copter Noise Curbs

A campaign by community activists to fight helicopter noise in neighborhoods surrounding Van Nuys Airport is gaining momentum.

Political support is building for a measure activists have long sought: a federal rule that would require non-emergency helicopters to observe a 1,000-foot minimum altitude over populated areas. Currently, there is no altitude minimum.

Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills), state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles) and Assemblyman Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles) have written the Federal Aviation Administration in the past month to support the proposed rule change.

“We have in the previous two-month period received a couple dozen telephone inquiries and letters from people who have been subjected to a great deal more noise than in the past,” Beilenson said. The FAA will evaluate the proposal and the public comments it has received. But it could take nearly three years for the change to go into effect.

Helicopter operators have criticized the proposed rule change as unworkable, saying that press and emergency helicopters are sometimes required to fly lower.