Talks Cleared for Takeoff

After months of talking about and around--but rarely to--each other, officials from Burbank and the airport that bears its name are sitting down and negotiating controversial plans to build a new passenger terminal and expand the busy airfield.

Finally--and it took one of the airport’s loudest critics to do it.

Recent antagonism between the Burbank City Council and the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority has done nothing but cost both sides gobs of money and sour once-close relations between Burbank and its airport partner cities, Glendale and Pasadena. At issue is not only how big the new terminal should be and how many flights per day it should accommodate, but also when those flights should be.

In a plan released earlier this year, Burbank officials demanded that the terminal be capped at 16 gates--rather than the 19 desired by the Airport Authority--and that a nighttime flight curfew be imposed to curb late-night operations. The Times supported Burbank’s plan as a way to get stalled negotiations started again, but all the plan appeared to do was further divide the two sides by ratcheting up the legal and public relations war to a new, even more expensive level. No one was served.

Airport administrators correctly pointed out that the power to impose a mandatory flight curfew lies with the Federal Aviation Administration--and that such a curfew was unlikely to be granted because jets flying in and out of Burbank are already among the quietest in the nation. That provided small comfort to residents living under flight paths, and Burbank officials criticized the Airport Authority for not taking their concerns seriously.

All the while, various court skirmishes wound their way through the system with most rulings favoring the Airport Authority’s efforts to move ahead with expansion. Over the past year, Burbank has spent about $3.5 million in legal fees and the Airport Authority has spent about $1.2 million--public money that both sides could have put to better use.

Amid all this Sturm und Drang, Burbank Mayor Bob Kramer extended an olive branch and got formal negotiations back on track. It was a brave move, considering Kramer has been among the staunchest opponents of airport expansion on the Burbank council. But Kramer wisely understands that neither the city nor the airport can afford to continue hemorrhaging money and goodwill at current rates. And his timing could not have been better. With the removal earlier this month of a longtime authority representative from Glendale, the panel appears in the mood to negotiate--finally.

Yet again, The Times calls on both sides to use negotiation to settle their differences. Will it be easy? No. Burbank wants many things that the Airport Authority simply cannot deliver alone. Likewise, the Airport Authority is convinced that its plans are the right plans and is pressing ahead. A new terminal will someday be built. But it’s up to Burbank and its partner cities to decide whether that terminal stands as a crowning symbol of cooperation or as a sore reminder of a nasty fight.