Authority seeks to alter study

Expanding the area included in a mandatory nighttime curfew on all

aircraft flights is among the changes the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena

Airport Authority is looking to make in order to get a federally

approved curfew.

To achieve that goal, the authority wants to enlist the help of

the Burbank City Council to lobby federal lawmakers for changes in

the criteria used in a study required to be eligible for the curfew.

“The notion is rather than go ahead and do an application [for a

curfew], perhaps the best way to go is seek legislative changes that

would broaden the definition of costs and benefits to ensure success

in the future,” airport spokesman Victor Gill said.

The Federal Aviation Administrations restricts the airport to

studying the benefits of a curfew to an area where noise averages 65

decibels or higher over a 24-hour period.

The airport wants to change that and be allowed to use an expanded

study area.

A study for the airport done by consultants Landrum and Brown

calculated an $18-million increase in property values that included

properties outside the 65-decibel contour.

Eliminating the homes outside the contour dropped the value

increase to only $1.9 million, the study said.

“Each property has some incremental value both inside and outside

the contour,” Gill said. “That would translate into an increase in

the real estate market if planes were not flying over at night.”

The FAA rejected the airport’s placing a monetary value on sleep

lost by a person awoken at night by aircraft.

The consultant’s study calculated a $21-million benefit over an

11- year period for eliminating nighttime awakenings.

The council seems to be in favor of the move.

“I hope that process moves swiftly,” City Councilman Todd Campbell

said. “I would be more than happy, as well as all of my colleagues,

to be in support of this.”

The council decided Tuesday to place the matter on a future

meeting agenda.

The move should not be seen as the airport abandoning the curfew

study but as giving the airport a fighting chance to receive

approval, Glendale Commissioner Bob Yousefian said.

“It’s an option we mulled over after the airport authority spent

$3 million on the study,” Yousefian said. “But before moving forward

we want them to tweak the law so it works to our advantage.”

The airport has a voluntary curfew in place for commercial

aircraft between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. A mandatory curfew would be for

the same hours but include all aircraft using the airport.

The airport began the study process to get a nighttime curfew

approved by the Federal Aviation Administration in 2000.

In May 2004, the FAA sent a letter to the airport stating the

curfew would not be approved because it did not agree with the

methodology used to show benefits of a curfew would outweigh the

costs.

Resident David Piroli, a frequent speaker at council meetings on

airport issues, disagreed with the direction the airport was going in

the absence of a study that conclusively shows the cost associated

with losing sleep due to aircraft noise.

“If there is no study then the airport should get busy and

commission one,” Piroli said.

Rather than get a legislative change on the study methodology, the

airport should work with lawmakers to get funding for a sleep

deprivation study, Piroli said.