AIRPORT CONTROL SOUGHT VAN NUYS FACILITY IGNORED, SOME SAY.

Byline: James Nash Staff Writer

VAN NUYS - Behind the thrum of jet engines and whirring of helicopter blades, there is another kind of rumbling at Van Nuys Airport: a call for more local control of the airport's destiny.

About 40,000 corporate jets, propeller-driven planes and helicopters fly in and out of Van Nuys Airport each month, eliciting complaints about noise from an average of 30 residents. Neither statistic has changed much in the past three years, despite the impact of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on aviation, and no one says Van Nuys Airport is in a crisis.

That's part of the problem, say proponents of more local control at Van Nuys Airport.

The airport is the busiest general-aviation facility in the world but the second-smallest of four airports controlled by Los Angeles.

Saying that more local control would spur business activity while alleviating noise complaints, members of the Van Nuys Airport Citizens Advisory Council voted Nov. 4 to study the idea of a local governing authority for the airport. Van Nuys, like the Los Angeles International, Ontario International and Palmdale Regional airports, is governed by the citywide Airport Commission.

``If we have our own commission, we're no longer the stepchildren,'' said Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Association and a member of the city-appointed Citizens Advisory Council. ``There would be pressure to act much more quickly because that's all they're dealing with - they're not dealing with LAX or Ontario or Palmdale.''

Critics of Los Angeles World Airports management say Van Nuys has languished while the officials focus on a $9.1 billion plan to modernize LAX.

While Mayor James Hahn and other officials have wanted to fast-track the LAX plan, a master plan governing Van Nuys Airport in the works since March 1992 has yet to be adopted.

Meanwhile, many airport users and neighbors say, the city has charged exorbitant leases for small airplanes, failed to control noise, and not allowed the airport to live up to its potential as an economic engine in the San Fernando Valley.

``If you're a tenant at Van Nuys, it's hard to get a lease beyond a year,'' said Bruce Ackerman, president of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley. ``Why in the world would anybody build something without a lease, and why would a bank finance that construction?''

Barbara Cesar, owner of Syncro Aircraft Interiors Inc., a tenant at Van Nuys since 1984, said Los Angeles World Airports has worked to displace smaller businesses like hers that are the lifeblood of the airport in favor of hangars for the larger Boeing Business Jets.

The business jets, identical on the outside to the common passenger Boeing 737s, draw higher takeoff and landing fees than smaller jets and propeller-driven airplanes.

``The biggest problem I have is that (airport officials) don't ask aviators how to run the airport,'' Cesar said. ``They're more concerned with LAX and we're out on the back burner.''

Van Nuys Airport officials say the airport, which is estimated to pump $1.2 billion into the region's economy each year, is healthy.

The delays in the airport master plan have not discouraged investments by existing tenants such as Skytrails Aviation, which is planning to expand its hangar space from 9,000 square feet to 100,000 to accommodate more jets, said airport Manager Selena Birk.

``We have almost no vacancies as far as hangar space. There's considerable interest in the vacant property'' on the east end of the airport, Birk said. ``Community interest in the airport is very high. I would say we are successful in managing the airport.''

Birk said airport officials don't want to squeeze out propeller planes and other smaller users, but are responding the declining numbers of the aircraft.

The idea of a local governing authority for Van Nuys Airport draws support from many quarters, including residents who have complained about jet and helicopter noise, propeller aircraft users who fear they're being squeezed out by higher rents, and even by some larger airport users who hunger for a comprehensive approach to developing the facility's remaining acreage.

They say a local authority would spur action on the long-delayed airport master plan, while at the same time being more receptive to concerns of neighboring residents and small-plane users.

There now are fewer than half as many propeller planes at Van Nuys as in 1980, and Elliot Sanders, a pilot who heads the Van Nuys Propeller Aircraft Association, said many of the small-plane operators feel endangered.

Leases at Van Nuys have skyrocketed to where it now costs twice as much to keep a plane there than airports such as Whiteman in Pacoima or Santa Monica Airport, Sanders said. And the Skytrails expansion threatens to encroach on areas where small planes are stored and repaired.

``It's all due to the slow molasses of inattention we have seen from the management,'' Sanders said, adding that he was referring to Los Angeles World Airports and not Birk specifically. ``We're not just a bunch of kids and playboys out there having fun with our airplanes - we play a vital role at this airport.''

Also in the path of the Skytrails expansion is Blue Skies Aviation, a flight school with about 30 students. Manager Carson Lockwood said he doesn't know what will happen to his business, which he said is a vital link in cultivating new pilots.

``If you don't have that link in place, all you have is the military, and that's not enough,'' Lockwood said of flight schools.

Mark Sullivan, the owner of Skytrails, said he and airport officials are trying to find another home for Blue Skies Aviation. Sullivan said he shares the frustration of Sanders and other pilots who feel they're being left out of planning for the airport's future.

``It is a public airport,'' Sullivan said. ``The little guys can't pay the land rates. It's like going to a public park and saying you can't go there unless you make $100,000.''

In the neighborhoods surrounding the airport and under flight paths, many residents say they still endure the window-rattling whooshes of noisy older jets and the din of helicopter flights. Although Los Angeles World Airports has a full-time staffer at Van Nuys who logs and responds to noise complaints, some residents say a local governing authority would be more sympathetic.

E.K. Lear is the most prolific filer of noise complaints, having once lodged 300 in a single month. By policy, however, airport officials investigate only five complaints from a single household in a month. Records kept by the airport's noise office show that 26 people filed complaints in September 2003, down slightly from 30 in January 2003 and 33 in August 2001.

Lear, who lives just west of the airport, once wrote that jet noise would rouse a hibernating bear. But in an interview, he said airport officials have been dealing with the problem, although he said a local airport governing authority might help.

``I'm for anything that might make it run more efficiently,'' Lear said. ``They keep working on it. All we can do is hope.''

Members of the Van Nuys Airport Citizens Advisory Council, which was formed in 1985, represent both airport users and neighbors. But the council has only advisory powers. Even its recommendation to ask the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office to investigate the idea of a formal policy-making body for Van Nuys is not binding.

The proposal would require a change to the City Charter, although the airport would remain part of Los Angeles World Airports. Councilman Tony Cardenas, whose district includes the airport, said the idea of a local governing authority for Van Nuys Airport is worth studying, although he did not take a position on its merits.

``It's something that needs to be vetted,'' Cardenas said.

Birk, the airport manager, questioned whether a separate governing authority at Van Nuys would speed action on the airport master plan. A proposed master plan still awaits action by the Airport Commission and the Citywide Planning Commission.

``I don't know what their terms (of a local governing authority) are,'' Birk said. ``There is a Valley representative on the (Airport Commission).''

Bob Jackson, a pilot and founding member of the Citizens Advisory Council, said the conflict stems largely from the diverse range of airport users and from the slowness of Los Angeles World Airports to respond to changing needs and trends.

``They're going through growing pains,'' Jackson said. ``All this long, it was a cow pasture.''

James Nash, [phone]

james.nash(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

photo, chart

Photo:

Elliot Sanders, who heads the Van Nuys Propeller Aircraft Association, says many of the small-plane operators feel endangered by skyrocketing leases.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer

Chart:

BUSIEST AIRPORTS

SOURCE: Federal Aviation Administration 

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