Noise News for Week of October 27, 1996


Encino Resident Makes Recommendations to Van Nuys Airport Steering Committee

PUBLICATION: Los Angeles Times
DATE: October 27, 1996
SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 18
BYLINE: >Gerald Silver (editorial)
DATELINE: Van Nuys, California
ACTIVISTS, INDIVIDUALS, AND GROUPS MENTIONED: Gerald Silver, president, Homeowners of Encino and Stop the Noise

The Los Angeles Times printed the following letter to the editor by Gerald Silver, an Encino resident and president of Homeowners of Encino and Stop the Noise:

The Van Nuys Airport Part 150 Steering Committee will finally be reconvened Oct. 29 (at 7 p.m. at Airtel in Van Nuys) after almost four years of inaction.

During the past four years, noise problems have grown worse as more helicopters and noisy Stage 2 aircraft have joined the Van Nuys fleet. The initial Part 150 recommendations do little to resolve noise problems and are clearly ineffective. Instead of reducing the number of jets and cutting back operations, the study recommended a weak "fly neighborly" policy that obviously does not control noise. Some operators received over 80 citation notices for failing to fly neighborly, yet they still continue to fly unneighborly.

The steering committee meeting is an opportunity for the airport and community to address noise problems together.

The committee should represent the public's interest -- not merely be an advocate for the airport. The committee should be expanded to include state senators and leaders of bona fide homeowner groups living south-southeast of the airport and in the Santa Monica Mountains. Participation of fixed base operators should be restricted, since they have obvious conflicts of interest.

Although state Sens. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Van Nuys) and Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) both have districts heavily impacted by noise from Van Nuys Airport, the L.A. Department of Airports has refused to place them on the steering committee. California has passed noise laws and land-use regulations that impact airports. It is reprehensible that state senators are not included on the committee.

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