Residents in western San Fernando Valley are trying to halt FAA plans to direct more air traffic over the neighborhood.
More than 1,900 residents have signed a petition against an FAA plan to allow more passenger flights from Hollywood Burbank Airport over several San Fernando Valley communities, it was reported Friday.
The group, called Studio City for Quiet Skies, launched the petition in response to Federal Aviation Administration plans to move departing flights on a trajectory farther south over Studio City, Sherman Oaks and Encino, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. The petition was on the online site Change.org.
Residents say the changes would bring more noise, traffic and pollution to the area, and they slammed the plan in a series of comments on the petition, according to the Daily News.
"We object to flight paths that expose residents and visitors, our school children, student athletes and people seeking recreation in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area, to constant jet noise and pollution," according to the petition.
"I don't understand why commercial air traffic is not being directed over the San Fernando Valley's commercial and industrial zones, or above our numerous freeways," a Studio City resident wrote. "Our residential neighborhoods are under constant assault with traffic from major thoroughfares being redirected to side streets where people live and children play by Google Maps and Waze. Now the FAA wants to direct planes over our homes and playgrounds as well. Why?"
Airport officials are also concerned about the change, and the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association and the Studio City Residents Association have both opposed it, the Daily News reported.
Patrick Lammerding, deputy executive director of planning and development at the airport, wrote a letter to FAA officials on Aug. 21, noting his office "cannot express support for the proposed" plan, according to the newspaper.
"It is equally important to us that we act as a good neighbor to the surrounding communities that we serve and who support us," he wrote.
A spokesman for the FAA said in a statement that the federal agency "is proposing to update two existing routes for aircraft that depart off Runway 15 at Hollywood Burbank Airport. The purpose of the updates is to keep Burbank Runway 15 departures better separated from LAX arrivals to the south and from aircraft that are arriving to Burbank's Runway 8."
Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Krekorian, whose district includes North Hollywood and Studio City, said in a statement in August that the new paths will "focus more noise over a smaller area, including over schools and quiet residential neighborhoods." He added that "the FAA's unwillingness to be transparent about this process and its complete inability to articulate a true public benefit to be derived from the new flight paths wrongly shuts the public out of the discussion," the Daily News reported.
https://patch.com/california/northridge/plan-steer-air-traffic-over-valley-hits-turbulence
I am against allowing more passenger flights from Hollywood Burbank Airport over several San Fernando Valley communities. this is a small airport and should remain that way. it is settled among vast communities near the airport. instead I would propose the traffic from this airport be redirected to the larger airports, los angeles international airport, that is in a position to absorb such traffic and eliminate any new threat towards the family homes around the burbank airport.
Thank you.