BURBANK AIRPORT OFFERING ACCORD.

Byline: Sharline Chiang Daily News Staff Writer

Officials at Burbank Airport offered city officials a new deal Friday to settle their long-running dispute - a ``global settlement'' to all issues standing in the way of a proposed passenger terminal expansion.

Airport officials urged the city to drop its opposition to terminal expansion plans in exchange for a federal study of airport noise that would be crafted as much as possible to meet city demands for a mandatory curfew on night flights, according to a memo from Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority President Joyce Streator to Burbank Mayor David Golonski.

The airport also proposed that the city agree to abide by the study's findings and that the two sides agree to separate the question of solving airport noise from the issue of expansion.

Golonski said he welcomed the overture, but that the two sides still have a lot of talking to do.

``I think (the proposal) has some promise,'' he said, ``but I'm a little disappointed. It seems that one of things they're proposing is that Burbank would be bound by the study. We've stated time and time again we would not do that.''

Airport spokesman Victor Gill acknowledged that the offer was ``a tough sell,'' but said Federal Aviation Administration officials have recommended that noise and expansion issues be ``decoupled.''

``The curfew and terminal are just not related,'' Gill said. ``The replacement terminal should not depend on the success or the lack of success of the curfew.

``(Expansion) is vitally needed for safety reasons. It doesn't make any sense anymore to hold up an important safety project for another two years.''

The airport and the city have been at odds for more than a decade over a proposal to relocate the passenger terminal and expand it from 14 gates to 19. The new terminal would handle 10 million passengers a year - about twice the current annual count. And it would meet FAA safety standards for the distance between between the runways and the terminal.

In its memo, hand-delivered Friday afternoon to city officials, the airport proposed:

That the city be a full partner, on its terms, in the federal Part 161 study, which will identify ways to reduce or mitigate aircraft noise impacts.

That the city agree before the study begins to accept all findings and recommendations, and that the city drop litigation that challenges zoning and land-use authority for the proposed expansion project.

That the study explore two mandatory curfew options. One would ban all turbojet operations from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. The second would ban takeoffs only from 10:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. and landings only from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.

That the city support the 19-gate terminal project. The airport would not expand the new terminal again before 2010, and then only after conducting an environmental impact report.

That the city would facilitate tax-favored financing for the terminal project.

That the airport impose a permanent cap on air carrier turbojet operations of 10 percent over the 1996 operations count of 59,156, which is the number in the city's ``21st Century Plan.''

That the airport adopt a noise budget that sets a daily ceiling on the number of minutes of nighttime noise disturbance.

That the airport would reimburse the city for all costs associated with improving roads and other city services to accommodate the new terminal.

Burbank officials, who say an expanded airport would increase noise in the area, have proposed paying $250,000 toward the cost of the federal noise study. But they also insist on reserving the right to oppose expansion plans, regardless of the study's findings.

Work on the Part 161 study is scheduled to begin in about nine weeks, take a year to complete and cost about $1 million. No airport has completed the Part 161 process since it was instituted in 1990, making it unclear whether the FAA will use the study to impose a curfew.