Burbank Receives Setback in Airport Expansion Fight

BURBANK — A judge Wednesday dismissed Burbank’s latest attempt to block the airport’s plans for a new terminal, delivering a new setback to the city.

Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Emilie H. Elias threw out Burbank’s request for an injunction against the airport and a related lawsuit against Pasadena and Glendale.

The city claimed in part that the planned terminal would be too noisy, according to city officials and those with the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority.

“The judge decided . . . that we didn’t have facts sufficient to go forward,” said Burbank City Atty. Dennis Barlow, who said an appeal is under consideration.

Said airport spokesman Victor Gill: “We said from the outset this case was going no place, and we have been affirmed.”

The ruling was handed down even as city and airport officials met Wednesday for talks aimed at negotiating an out-of-court settlement to the long-standing airport controversy.

The Airport Authority plans to expand the airport to 19 gates, with the potential of adding eight more eventually. Citing concerns over noise and traffic, Burbank favors a more limited expansion to two gates for a total of 16.

The talks were the second in a series that began Friday. “I think we made some headway,” Burbank City Manager Bud Ovrum said Wednesday.

Elias’ ruling still leaves several lawsuits outstanding in the dispute between the city and Airport Authority, which is run by a board of commissioners appointed from all three cities.

Burbank had tried unsuccessfully to argue that an amendment to the Airport Authority’s charter setting a noise ceiling on airport operations doesn’t apply, and should be replaced by a stricter standard.

But the judge’s decision effectively upholds the existing noise limit.

“Many of the cases in our view that Burbank has conjured up are just that--attempts to throw dust in the air without real legal issues behind them,” Gill said.

Wednesday’s ruling, he added, “crosses one off the list.”