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7-11-99 Added A list of anti-Noise and polution Airport groups
By Lisa Van Proyen, Staff Writer
RESEDA -- Hundreds of neighbors living around Van Nuys Airport gathered at a town hall meeting Saturday to air years-old complaints about roaring jets and helicopter noise. Residents at the three-hour listening session with Federal Aviation Administration officials said they hoped their words did not fall on deaf ears.
"I got the sense that they were willing to listen and taking notes. They had the whole FAA staff there," said Gerald Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino. About 200 people whose homes are near the busiest general aviation airport in the world showed up at Reseda High School's gym Saturday morning to speak with William Withycombe, the FAA's regional administrator for the Western-Pacific Division.
The complaints ranged from the barrage of daily low-flying helicopters to older jets so noisy that they drown out phone conversations inside homes. The common complaint targeted the numerous media helicopters that depart the airport in pre-dawn hours for traffic reports.
"In my house, many miles away from the airport, I don't need an alarm clock because I've got the helicopters to wake me up everyday," said Tony Lucente, president of the Studio City Residents Association.
FAA officials assured residents that they are working on solutions. The FAA recently formed a Southern California Noise Abatement task force to work with the Van Nuys citizens on curtailing excessive aircraft noise.
Some of the proposed solutions include imposing higher minimum altitude levels for helicopters to fly at, developing a new jet departure path over fewer homes, and approving a code to better track helicopter operators who are not following flight rules. "We are interested in creating the best environment that we can for the community," Withycombe said.
Other proposals at the meeting included shifting air traffic to the airport in Palmdale and creating a media pool in which one reporter would cover traffic news in one helicopter.
And many residents said they want the older, noisier aircraft phased out of the airport.
But Jim Stewart, a member of the Van Nuys Airport Citizens Advisory Council, was one of the few to argue that in eliminating the noisy aircraft, the San Fernando Valley will suffer economically. "To ban them from Van Nuys and no where else would hurt us. . . . It'll put business elsewhere. This is just one more thing to say to businesses: `We don't want you in Los Angeles,' " Stewart said, saying he was speaking for himself and not the full advisory council.
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Woodland Hills, organized the meeting to gain the FAA's support on proposals to alleviate noise. "It will be very tough to pass legislation because we will be up against a free-skies type of movement and we will need support," Sherman said after the meeting. "We want a balance that favors the residents as much as the industry."
Those residents who want to report an aircraft noise complaint in Van Nuys can do so by calling a 24-hour recorded line at (800) 560-0010. FAA officials also urged residents to contact their office at (310) 725-3550.
COPYRIGHT © 1999 Daily News Los Angeles
Aviation: Homeowners, politicians at forum urge a top FAA official to impose curbs at Van Nuys airfield.
By KRISTINA SAUERWEIN, Times Staff Writer
RESEDA--Frequently referring to Van Nuys Airport as "Van Noise," several hundred San Fernando Valley residents and politicians on Saturday implored a top official with the Federal Aviation Administration to curb noise and pollution from the nation's busiest general aviation airport. During a forum at Reseda High School, residents asked the FAA for its support in requiring helicopters to fly at higher altitudes, imposing stricter flight curfews and reducing the number of jets taking off and landing.
"You need to listen to the voices of the community," Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) said to FAA representatives, including William Withycombe, regional administrator for the agency's Western-Pacific Division. "We need your support."
As an appointee to the FAA's Southern California Task Force, which is reviewing air traffic procedures at airports throughout the Los Angeles area, Sherman sponsored the meeting in hopes of speedier resolutions to airport problems. The noise reduces property values and threatens quality of life, he said.
"First came the homes, then came the jets," Sherman said to clapping and cheering residents, including presidents of nearly all homeowner and resident associations in the Valley. Also in attendance was state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles), along with local political representatives.
Absent were Van Nuys Airport officials, but in a letter to Sherman, dated July 9, Van Nuys Airport Manager Jens Rivera said the airport strictly enforces three noise abatement policies and a nighttime curfew law that limits certain types of aircraft operations. "We look forward to working with your office in seeking a balanced approach to address [noise] issues with the residential, airport and business communities," Rivera wrote.
Evelyn Jerome, a spokeswoman for the Van Nuys Helicopter Operators Assn., said pilots generally try to fly above industrial or recreational areas instead of residential. She also said safety reasons limit how high they can fly, because anything above 2,500 feet is in the flight path for Burbank Airport. "We're happy to be as flexible to the extent that we can be," said Jerome, who attended the meeting.
She said stricter curfews cannot be imposed on Los Angeles police and fire helicopters, many of which are based in Van Nuys, because that could put people's lives at stake.
The airport is also the base for most media helicopters in Southern California, many of which take off around 5:30 a.m. If there were a later morning curfew, there would be no morning news or traffic, Jerome said. Residents said they're particularly bothered by the media helicopters and complained that most seem to fly near residential areas along the 101 and 405 freeways.
"I don't need an alarm clock in the mornings," said Tony Lucente, president of the Studio City Residents Assn., which represents 2,000 households. "They wake me up every weekday."
Copyright 1999 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved
We thought you would find the story in Friday's (7-9-99) LA Times interesting. For the source see http://www.latimes.com/search/searchcgi
Transit / The Green Line and the airport are just a mile apart. But even optimists say it will be years before the MTA connects the two.
By CHRISTOPHER REYNOLDS, Times Travel Writer
Like a lot of people in Los Angeles, I was pleased a few weeks ago at the news that the city's Metro Red Line had been extended at last into Hollywood. And like a lot of people, as I rode free from Tinseltown to downtown on that opening weekend (it's normally $1.35 each way), I found my thoughts drifting south and west.
To the airport, where, despite the examples set by other big cities around the world, the subway still does not go.
The Blue Line already delivers light-rail service to Long Beach, and the Metro system may reach the San Fernando Valley as planned next year. But the Green Line to El Segundo and Redondo Beach, the Metro line that reaches nearest to the airport, still gets no closer than Aviation Boulevard and Imperial Highway, about a mile from LAX's passenger terminals.
City officials (who control the airport) and Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials (who control the Metro system) have given various reasons for this perplexing route, including safety concerns and the idea that airport officials didn't want to continue the subway until they'd clarified their long-term plans for the expansion and reshaping of the airport. (More about the expansion later.)
Thus, for the last few years, to get via Metro from, say, downtown to the airport, travelers have had to take a Red Line train, transfer to a Green Line train, wait 10 to 20 minutes at the terminus on Aviation for a free shuttle bus, then take the shuttle, called the G bus, to the terminal. I don't know anyone who's actually done this, but last year the airport counted 72,980 passengers on those G buses, a 14% increase over the year before.
(A spokesman noted that the MTA's buses stop about half a mile from the nearest airport terminal, near Sepulveda Boulevard and 96th Street. From there, most travelers walk 150 feet to the Lot C shuttle bus stop and catch the C bus to their terminal.)
If you walk around the airport asking people in uniforms how to reach the Metro system, as I did one day in the middle of June, you get a lot of blank stares. Not too many written clues either. Eventually, one of the taxi attendants did point me to the waiting area for shuttle buses to the parking lots A, B and C. Though the G bus doesn't run as often as the A, B and C buses, one did turn up soon enough. Still, I'd never bet on an Angeleno, never mind a tourist from elsewhere, to discover and use this option.
So when will the subway and the airport truly meet? Even the optimists say it will be years.
The mayor, airport board and City Council are still sparring over the master plan that will decide expansion strategy, and there's an environmental impact report to be completed. LAX spokesman Tom Winfrey guesses it will be at least two to three years before any substantial physical work can begin. But all the leading proposals for expansion, he says, call for a Green Line airport extension.
Generally, Winfrey says, the idea is to extend the line along the north side of Imperial Highway to the west side of the airport near Pershing Drive. From there, instead of waiting for a shuttle bus, travelers would step onto a "people mover" that circulates among the airport's passenger terminals. What sort of people mover?
"I don't believe there's been a technology identified," Winfrey says. Also, though airport planners have been quoted as guessing extension costs at $350 million to $400 million, Winfrey says he knows of no formal cost estimates. In short, we have a while to wait. During that time, we might consider a few leading airports from the rest of the Western world.
In Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt and Rome there are city-airport rail connections. In Paris, the Orly and Charles de Gaulle (Roissy) airports feature rail stations. In London, authorities haven't stopped at merely providing rail service that connects Heathrow Airport with the central city (the Piccadilly Line, which costs about $5 per person and takes 60 to 90 minutes). They've also got the Heathrow Express, which leaves the airport every 15 minutes, costs about $15 and delivers travelers 15 minutes later to centrally located Paddington Station.
On June 23, the London system was refined further, when operators opened a baggage check facility at Paddington Station. The move allows travelers headed for Heathrow to check their bags at the train station and also get their boarding passes from 27 participating airlines. By the time the train delivers those travelers to the airport, their two most onerous chores will be done. (London's other leading airport, Gatwick, is connected as well, a rail route to Victoria Station that takes about 30 minutes and costs about $15.)
In Chicago, the transit authority's Blue Line trains zip directly to the downtown Loop from O'Hare airport in 45 minutes. Trains run every five to 10 minutes during peak hours. In Atlanta, the MARTA system connects Hartsfield International Airport's south terminal to the downtown Five Points area. In Washington's National Airport, there's a Metro stop five minutes from the main terminal.
Just up the coast from Los Angeles, San Francisco's local officials have been fussing for 30 years over extending their BART system to San Francisco International Airport. Now a $1.2-billion project is underway to extend the line 8.7 miles from Colma to SFO and Millbrae. Target date for completion is New Year's Eve 2001.
If Los Angeles rail boosters want consolation, they might look to New York. There, after more than 30 years of wrangling over ways to improve public transport from Manhattan to Kennedy and La Guardia airports, the City Council on June 7 approved a compromise plan for an "airtrain" to Kennedy. The catch? To reach the airport from Manhattan and vice versa, travelers and their luggage will need to change trains at the Long Island Railroad's Jamaica Station. The new rail line is to be completed in 2003 at a projected cost of $1.5 billion.
Christopher Reynolds welcomes comments and suggestions, but cannot respond individually to letters and calls. Write Travel Insider, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053, or send e-mail to chris.reynolds@latimes.com.
Copyright 1999 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved
** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. **
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