AIRPORT GROWTH PROPOSALS IRK HOMEOWNERS\Residents reject consultant's reports, cite intolerable noise.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Noise critics near Van Nuys Airport say they're not happy with any of a consultant's four proposals for expanding the facility onto 120 acres of vacant land.

"Our position is the four proposals they have on the table are not acceptable," said Gerald Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino and an anti-expansion coalition called Stop The Noise

The four ideas, contained in a report contracted by the Los Angeles Department of Airports, address ways to expand the city-owned facility beyond its current 725 acres.

In one proposal, there would be 2.5 million square feet of industrial, office and retail space. Another calls for 990,000 square feet of aviation use and nothing else. The other two proposals suggest 550,000 and 330,000 square feet of aviation space.

Opponents of airport expansion say the four proposals would allow an additional 117 jets and 51 helicopters to be based at Van Nuys, thereby substantially raising noise levels - against the wishes of most in the crowd of 325 during a meeting Wednesday night at the Airtel Plaza Hotel.

Randy Friedman, who has lived for three years near Hayvenhurst Avenue and Vanowen Street, said he was awakened at 6 a.m. Wednesday by the noise of a helicopter taking off on nearby Runway 34 Left.

"I thought it was flying through my window," Friedman told the gathering, adding he has the airport's toll-free complaint hot line number programmed into his telephone's speed dial because he calls it so often.

Marvin Leon, a 31-year Encino resident, said the aircraft noise has become unbearable. "Flights interrupt my dinner. I can't enjoy my back yard with my grandchildren," he said. "Television viewing and reading is almost impossible."

Leon suggested that the vacant land be developed for public recreation, with parks, a senior citizen center and a community swimming pool rather than the office buildings, retail shops and light industrial uses proposed in the report by Planning Associates Inc., the consulting firm hired by the Department of Airports.

The department is working on a 20-year master plan to manage the expected growth at Van Nuys Airport, among the nation's busiest general aviation airfield, with 1,500 takeoffs and landings each day. The plan will address how 120 acres of vacant land, including the former Air National Guard facility, should be developed.

Nancy Niles, a spokeswoman for the Department of Airports, said the city has tried to appease residents' complaints about noise by enacting a voluntary curfew a few years back. No takeoffs or landings for aircraft that exceed a prescribed decibel level are allowed between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., she said.

Further, federal regulations call for the phasing out by the turn of the century of certain older aircraft - mainly those built in the 1960s and 1970s - that make the most noise, generally 74 decibels and above, Niles said.

Leon cited the high vacancy rates in existing San Fernando Valley office buildings, storefronts and malls as a reason that another such development isn't needed on the Van Nuys land.

The 73-acre National Guard compound is the largest parcel. About 25 acres east of the Bull Creek flood control channel could be developed for aviation uses, like airplane hangars, while the other 48 acres is suitable for nonaviation purposes.

Meanwhile, 40 acres on the Woodley Avenue side of the airport, north of Saticoy Street, could be divided to allow aircraft uses on the west and nonaviation development on the east.

Opponents have been pushing for no further airport expansion, citing already excessive noise. They also want a reduction in aviation usage and noise limits on jet and helicopter operation.

"The airport grew like a weed. There's been no logic, no planning," Silver said of Van Nuys' development in the past five decades. "Somebody goes in, rents a piece of property and starts flying jets."

The airport, dedicated in 1928 as a private airfield, was bought by the city in 1949 and has grown in acreage over the years.