The Burbank City Council this week voted unanimously to begin negotiations to extend the city’s development agreement with Bob Hope Airport for an additional three years – a sort of “cease fire” that will allow the two parties to plan future capital projects without high-pressure deadlines.
Council ready to work with airport
Negotiations extend agreement to allow limited development at Bob Hope till
June 2012.
By Gretchen Meier
The Glendale (CA) News-Press
The Burbank City Council this week voted unanimously to begin negotiations to extend the city’s development agreement with Bob Hope Airport for an additional three years – a sort of “cease fire” that will allow the two parties to plan future capital projects without high-pressure deadlines.
The negotiations would extend a 2005 agreement between the city and Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority that allowed for only limited development at the airport until June 2012. Other items up for negotiation include requiring voter approval in Burbank of new building projects on the airfield.
Described by the city’s outside airport attorney Peter Kirsch as a “cease fire,” the agreement would also bar the airport from constructing a new terminal building until March 2015.
The Federal Aviation Administration has long had a safety issue with Bob Hope Airport’s passenger terminal and its proximity to the runway.
“We don’t want to get to 2012 and wonder what’s next or rush to put a new mechanism in place,” Kirsch told the City Council on Tuesday.
UPDATE: We received the following input on this article and the subject matter –
The article about the City wanting to work with the Airport isn’t entirely correct in referencing a letter of agreement between the City and the Airport. In 2005 the anti-noise groups attempted to force the Airport to sell the B2 property on Hollywood Way, where the new terminal should be built.
To keep the land, the Airport Authority entered into an agreement with the City of Burbank not to make any plans to move the terminal to that area for 10 years
This strategy was used delay and halt building a new terminal. It probably is a partial way to comply with last years’ FAA Runway Safety Inspection. The FAA Runway Safety Team believes that the existing terminal is too close to Runway 8-26 and wants it moved.
