Van Noise Airport Update for 10-1-01

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This is a proposal that Charles Brink will be making at the 10-2-01 Van Nuys CAC meeting.

New measures Proposed to reduce noise at Van Nuys airport

The pro-aircraft dominated Part 150 committee and the old LAWA board have totally failed the San Fernando Valley in reducing unnecessary noise at Van Nuys Airport.

Even the limited Part 150 provisions passed by the committee were not implemented in the final report. LAWA claimed the approved Part 150 plan matched what the Part 150 committee passed. In a correlation of the two documents it is easy see that the LAWA approved Part 150 plan has little resemblance to the approved Part 150 committee plan.

This shows that old LAWA board and the tired old staff lied to the San Fernando Valley residents, and is lying to the federal government when it claims there was meaningful public input to the final plan.

The pro- noisy aircraft group has gone so far as to block the will of the people to phase out the old tired stage 2 aircraft by suing LA. They lost, and the federal judge indicated that LAWA’s consultant and the pro noise groups report’s on how economically vital the airport is, are deficient and simply pro noise propaganda by the airport industry. The reports fail to include the damages to the residents caused by the noise.

Therefore the aircraft owners and new LAWA board need to recognize they must make meaningful improvements or the Valley residents who are the voters will do whatever is necessary to close this airport.

Reasonable aircraft owners and reasonable supporters of Van Nuys Airport need to get behind proposals to stop what amounts to noise terrorism against residents of the Valley.

None of these suggestions would significantly affect the overall use of Van Nuys Airport, but they will significantly affect specific businesses that use the old and cheap noisy aircraft and helicopters.

Most importantly, these changes will significantly reduce the noise abuse to the Valley

Proposed Changes

1. Ban the use of thrust reversers that are required to allow short field landings for early turnoffs into ramp area. Thrust reversers are exceedingly noisy and when used only for the convenience of the operators at the inconvenience of tens of thousands of residences, and are unacceptable. There is no safety issue here, as thrust reversers would be allowed if safety issues were present, but their use is strictly as a convenience of the operators and their high-paying customers, and this is not acceptable.

2. Ban planed flights (both IRF and VFR) of Stage 2 aircraft that are scheduled to arrive after the curfew. If they arrive after the curfew, require them to document why events beyond their control caused them to violate the curfew.

3. Require emergency departures of Stage 2 aircraft during the curfew to document why it is an emergency that could not have been moved outside of the curfew hours and why a Stage 3 aircraft could not have been used to meet the needs of the flight.

4. Recognize that helicopters are all Stage 2 aircraft and bring them into the same curfew that now controls a Stage 2 aircraft. Allow their use outside of the curfew hours but require a document filed showing that it was an emergency and not just another car chase.

6. Require that all Jets parked next to the residents in the Bull Creek area utilize ground power to operate the aircraft while they're parked at the ramp. Require that this ground power not utilize mobile generators, which add to the noise and air pollution. Require all jet aircraft to be towed both in and out of the hanger and ramp area from the taxiways.

I am sure that many more suggestions can be brought for the horrendous noise created by a few operators. This noise is simply a terrorist attack on the valley by a few who believe their rights exceed thousands of others. None of these proposals will significantly affect air commerce. They are allowed because they are pre ANCA or are nondiscriminatory towards aircraft.

The operators of this airport need to get real and recognize that if they do not address the needs of the residents of the San Fernando Valley, this airport will have a short life in the Valley.

Meeting tonight

The Van Nuys Airport (VNY) Citizens Advisory Council (CAC) will hold its monthly meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2001 at 7 PM at the Airtel--North building.

Item #2 and #3 relate to important court decisions that have been handed down recently that allow airports to ban Stage 2 jets, as well as sight seeing flights.

You can bring up specific noise issues that concern you. These should be discussed during Public Comment that is near the beginning of the meeting.

The Airport Director discusses important changes that are to take place at VNY during the "Staff Report" section of the meeting.

Please attend this Meeting. The aides of elected officials will be there, listening too. You may speak on any topic at the beginning of the meeting, under PUBLIC COMMENT. You may then ALSO SPEAK to each item of business.

We thought you would find this story from the 7-21-01 LA Times interesting. Click here for the full original

Board Nominees Mostly Insiders

Politics: Mayor names 17 to airport, harbor and DWP commissions. Included in the mix are union members, residents and allies.

Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn appointed his nominees to three of the city's most important commissions Friday, stocking the boards that govern the airport, the harbor and the Department of Water and Power with many appointees who served under the last two administrations.

The 17 nominees have at least 16 previous commission appointments among them, reflecting Hahn's comfort with City Hall insiders.

With his appointments, Hahn shapes the direction of the panels that govern the city's three semi-autonomous agencies. The mayor's announcement has been eagerly anticipated by those seeking to glean the stances of the new administration. The unpaid commissioners face an array of complex issues, including a controversial $12-billion plan to expand Los Angeles International Airport, a proposal strongly opposed by residents in the area. Hahn pledged during the campaign to seek a regional solution to increasing air traffic and said Friday that his commissioners "share this goal."

The new mayor said his Harbor Commission appointees--the majority of whom live in San Pedro--will work to build a better relationship with the community, which has often felt ignored in harbor matters. And he said his Board of Water and Power commissioners will focus on maintaining a reliable power source for the city.

Some observers praised the mayor's appointments as balanced and others complained about the return of so many familiar faces.

Hahn said he selected nominees who would bring both experience and new perspectives to the boards. "I think we've got a good mix of people," the mayor said.

One of the most prominent--and possibly controversial--appointees is Ted Stein, a hard-charging attorney who served on three commissions under mayors Richard Riordan and Tom Bradley. In 1997, Stein challenged Hahn for the city attorney's office, running a tough but unsuccessful campaign against him. But Stein eventually joined Hahn's mayoral campaign team as a vigorous fund-raiser for his former opponent.

"I had a chance to get to know him in a different way," Hahn said after appointing Stein to the Airport Commission. Hahn called Stein "someone who wants our airport to be as competitive as we can make it."

Stein's nomination could ruffle feathers at the airport, where he clashed with airlines during his previous tenure as president of the commission under Riordan. And he caused a flap when without consulting the rest of the commission, he gave a lobbying contract to Webster Hubbell, a onetime confidant of President Bill Clinton who got ensnared by the Whitewater scandal.

Stein was also a strong advocate of the airport expansion plan, which was strongly backed by Riordan. But Hahn said Stein now agrees that a regional solution is needed to deal with increasing airport traffic. "He is someone who understands the world has changed and we need to have a more regional approach," Hahn said.

Airport expansion opponents expressed concern that a majority of the new appointees, including Stein, served on the Airport Commission under Riordan.

Hahn "didn't take full advantage of the opportunity he had to send a clear message that times have changed and the existing Master Plan is dead," said Rep. Jane Harman (D-Redondo Beach). "When you're starting something fresh, it's easier to put your signature on it if you have new faces."

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter was skeptical that the commission would take a new position on airport expansion.

"What we're looking at [are] commissioners whose previous position has been staunch advocacy of LAX expansion," she said. "The question that remains unanswered is: Since we have Hahn instead of Riordan, will we have people carrying out his policies or Riordan's?"

The mayor's appointments--the largest number he has announced since taking office--are a careful mix of political allies and a diverse assortment of residents and union members.

"On the whole, it's a good balance of people," said City Council President Alex Padilla, who supported Hahn in the mayor's race. "Just like we see on the City Council, there are senior members with more experience and institutional history, and newer members that should bring in some new blood and new ideas. It's certainly a more diverse list of people than I've been used to seeing in the past several years."

Hahn's nominees must be confirmed by the City Council in the next 45 days before they can take their posts.

The names were received with little surprise by some observers who anticipated Hahn would select commissioners who shared with him a long history in City Hall.

"These are the people who have been running Los Angeles for the last 20 years," said political consultant Harvey Englander, who ran Stein's 1997 race against Hahn. "He's rewarding his friends. He's put people in whom he can trust, who can watch his back, who are not going to embarrass him and who are not going to be extremely independent."

Some of Hahn's political friends include Harbor Commission nominee James Acevedo, a San Fernando Valley political consultant who helped Hahn's field effort in the mayoral race, and current DWP Commissioner Ken Lombard, business partner of Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who campaigned for Hahn.

On the Airport Commission, carpenters union member Armando Vergara--whose union backed Hahn--replaces Miguel Contreras, head of the County Federation of Labor, which waged a campaign for Hahn's opponent, Antonio Villaraigosa.

The mayor also selected an array of neighborhood residents for the three panels, including Airport Commission nominee Ruth Mahala Brown Walter, a 32-year resident of Westchester, and Harbor Commission nominee Camilla Townsend Kocol, the former honorary mayor of San Pedro.

We Thought you would find this story from the 6-10-01 LA Times interesting. Click here for the full original

Airport Noise Battle Lands in Federal Court

Aviation: Charter companies are challenging as unconstitutional a city ban on basing older jets at the Van Nuys facility.

The latest sortie in the decades-long war over noise at Van Nuys Airport takes place Monday in federal court, where attorneys for aviation businesses and charter plane trade groups will challenge the city's limits on noisy jets at the nation's busiest general aviation airport.
The suit, brought by a group that includes five companies based at the airport, challenges the constitutionality of the city's strict limits on loud Stage 2 jets. The limits prevent all but about 50 of the older jets from being based at the airport after 2011.
The Los Angeles City Council imposed the regulations in April 2000 in response to residents who had complained the airport's other anti-noise measures, including a nighttime departure curfew and a voluntary "fly friendly" program, fell short of their goals.
But many airport neighbors say that preventing additional Stage 2 aircraft from being based at the airport will not help. "There will be no reduction in noise," said Gerald Silver, president of the homeowner coalition Stop the Noise. "This had so many exceptions [that] the residents get zero out of this."

Suit Wants Offenders Regulated, Not Jets
Monday's hearing in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles will address the aviation companies' charge that the regulations violate the 14th Amendment's equal protection guarantee, [The judge denied this claim] said Bret Lobner, senior counsel with the Los Angeles city attorney's office.
The companies say the airport rules are unfair because they determine which planes can be based there and for how long without regard to the number of times they fly or whether individual flights violate noise limits.
"They're trying to put a cap on the amount of time a plane can spend at the airport, rather than addressing this in noise terms," said Andrew Plump, an attorney for the plaintiffs.
If the city wants to curb noise, he said, it should deal with specific violations rather than regulate a type of plane.
Lobner, who is handling the case for the city, said that like many California airports, Van Nuys exceeds state noise limits and operates under a variance issued by the state Department of Transportation. The latest three-year variance was issued in May 2000.
"We're going to say that the airport is adopting a regulation to control aircraft noise by prohibiting the addition of the noisiest aircraft in America," Lobner said.

Plaintiffs Say Rule Is Bad for Business
About 50 Stage 2 jets that are based at the airport--most of which were built before 1985--are exempt and can stay there as long as their owners can keep them flying. The rules allow companies to replace the noisy jets with similar models through 2005 though those replacement jets have to be substituted with quieter aircraft after 2011.
"We still believe the rule is a good compromise," said Stacy Geere, a spokeswoman at the airport, one of four owned and operated by the city of Los Angeles. "It balances the needs of the aviation business with the interests of community members."
Plump argues that the older jets are still relied on heavily for corporate travel and that limiting their use could hurt business at the airport, which contributes $1.2 billion a year and at least 10,000 jobs to the San Fernando Valley economy [The judge also dismissed this claim are unreal].
"This could really impact business [at the airport] in a big way," Plump said. The companies that filed suit agree. Four of them are airplane charter services and one provides hangars and fuel for jets. They argue that the price difference between older jets and newer, quieter aircraft is measured in millions and could keep smaller companies, for whom Stage 2 jets are usually the entry-level option, from having a presence in Van Nuys.

"It's going to be bad, considering that six of the airplanes out of 20 we operate are Stage 2," said Gary Gilberts, assistant director of operations for Elite Aviation, one of the plaintiffs.
Anti-noise activist Silver and aviation company officials agree the small jets have a long life span and can grow more reliable with age under meticulous maintenance routines. But unlike the aviation companies, Silver bemoans the fact that these jets may be around Van Nuys for a long time. "A Gulfstream [jet] is not like an old [Ford] Pinto," he said.

We Thought you would find this letter to the 4-29--01 LA Times interesting. Click here for the full original

Coexisting in Van Nuys

The argument goes that because the Van Nuys Airport creates jobs, we should leave it alone, let it continue to pollute the air with noise, especially that of helicopters and older jets. We should even allow it to expand, increasing the assault on our ears.
By this logic, let's have a steel mill or two, perhaps a meat-packing plant with adjacent feedlots, or how about a paper mill? A nuclear waste dump? An open-pit mine? All these things create jobs, but would any one of them be given a permit to locate in the middle of our densely packed community? The argument simply doesn't hold up.
Let's see the airport voluntarily eliminate older, noisier jets, helicopter joy-riding, redundant news helicopters. Let's see commercial operators self-impose a strict curfew on all flights and provide proof that "medical emergency" exceptions to the curfew are bona fide emergencies. When we've seen substantial evidence of the aviation community's sincere desire to coexist with its neighbors, maybe then we can talk about jobs and about expanding the airport.

We Thought you would find this letter to the 3-25-01 LA Times interesting. Click here for the full original

Airport's Contribution

Re "Opponents Challenge Van Nuys Airport Plan," March 8.
Your writer repeats as fact that which I believe to be a myth, namely: "The 73-year-old airport contributes $1.2 billion a year and more than 10,000 jobs to the economic well-being of the San Fernando Valley." No source; no attribution.
This wild statement came from a so-called economic study commissioned by the airport to puff up the indispensibility of their grand nuisance. At best the study utilized a multiplier effect on reckless assumptions.
Whether the $1.2 billion is even close--and I would be astonished if the true benefit was even 1% of that claimed--high school journalism teaches the student to always quote the source, particularly on such a contentious issue as the economic benefit of the Van "Noise" Airport.
ZANVILLE S. GREEN Tarzana

We Thought you would find thisletter to the 9-9-00 LA Times interesting.Click here for the full original

New LAX Sign

* I was recently at LAX waiting for my flight and I overheard the following conversation one tourist was having with another tourist: "I think the smokestacks outside are from the factory that generates the smog for L.A."
Thank you, Mayor Riordan.

We Thought you would find this letter to the 8-3-00 Daily News interesting. Click here for the full original

Who do I call?

Re The sheriff's helicopters flying over Brad Pitt's wedding Saturday, providing protection for the party. The question which comes to my mind is who paid for it?

I would like the phone number to call to have them "fly by" when my granddaughter gets married.

Van Noise Airport Update for 10-2-01

New measures Proposed to reduce noise at Van Nuys airport

Proposed Changes

Meeting tonight

We thought you would find this story from the 7-21-01 LA Times interesting. Click here for the full original

Board Nominees Mostly Insiders

We Thought you would find this story from the 6-10-01 LA Times interesting. Click here for the full original

Airport Noise Battle Lands in Federal Court

Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved

We Thought you would find this letter to the 4-29--01 LA Times interesting. Click here for the full original

Coexisting in Van Nuys

Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved

We Thought you would find this letter to the 3-25-01 LA Times interesting. Click here for the full original

Airport's Contribution

Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved

We Thought you would find thisletter to the 9-9-00 LA Times interesting.Click here for the full original

New LAX Sign

Copyright 2000 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved

We Thought you would find this letter to the 8-3-00 Daily News interesting. Click here for the full original

Who do I call?

COPYRIGHT© 2000 Daily News Los Angeles