Update: July 15, 2019
Joint Task Force announced at BUR commissioners meeting on July 15, 2019.
VNY AND BUR AIRPORTS JOINT TASK FORCE ANNOUNCED
Joint Task Force Information
The City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), and Hollywood Burbank Airport have agreed on a Task Force, which was officially announced at the Burbank Commissioners meeting on July 15. It is to be comprised of City and Federal representatives, along with Airport staff, technical experts and FAA staff. Community groups such as our own are not included as voting members. The public has the ability to make presentations however we have urged them to include the three San Fernando Valley community advocacy groups focused on this issue including our own.
At the meeting, several commissioners expressed the following:
While the Task Force is underway there needs to be short-term fixes for Burbank.
If the community organizations that have been advocating for solutions at Van Nuys Airport and Burbank Airport "can remain positive" then they deserve a seat at the table.
Making sure that high fire risk and noise reverberations in the Santa Monica Mountains are included.
The Task Force is slated to begin in late August or early September and is expected to take 6 months through a series of meetings before it will submit recommendations in March 2020 for long-term solutions to the FAA for the aviation impacts to the South San Fernando Valley.
History and Immediacy
Last March, at our urging, U.S. Senators Feinstein and Harris, and Representatives Sherman and Schiff, called for a roundtable panel to be formed to find an immediate solution to the adverse impacts in our communities caused by changes to VNY and BUR departure patterns. Since it has taken about six months to put in place, it is no longer "immediate." However, we still believe this panel (now called a Task Force) is beneficial because it will look at long-term solutions that go beyond what would be considered immediate during the BUR Environmental Assessment (EA).
At the time we advocated for a panel, simultaneously we worked with the City of Los Angeles and LAWA’s Board of Airport Commissioners (BOAC) on an immediate solution for VNY that would not interfere with any proposed solutions at BUR while that roundtable panel could be formed. That VNY solution is nearing completion.
Burbank Commission Lags Behind
When our organization was formed in late January 2019, our focus was and has been on finding immediate solutions and long term solutions for Van Nuys Airport. However, our co-founders, as well as much of our membership, are impacted by BUR flights as well. The two other advocacy groups in the San Fernando Valley, with all of their founders based in Studio City, have focused on BUR, and we support them in that effort while also advocating for a comprehensive solution for both efforts. The Burbank Commission has been lagging behind BOAC in finding immediate solutions for BUR. Finally in June, the Burbank Commissioners passed a motion to propose three immediate fixes to the FAA.
Our position is that immediate fixes should not be delayed while awaiting the Task Force. If they are unable to do so by the time the Task Force is convened, the Task Force should do everything in its power to ensure that the proposed interim solutions are implemented immediately as they work on the longer term solutions.