GROUP CLOSE ON AIRPORT REVISION PETITION SEEKS CURFEW, EXPANSION LIMITS.

Byline: Sylvia L. Oliande Staff Writer

BURBANK - Leaders for the citizens group seeking airport expansion limits said Friday they are finishing a revised petition they hope to get on the ballot next year.

Restore Our Airport Rights expects to be ready as early as May 22 to submit its new petition demanding that a curfew and flight cap be part of any airport expansion deal the city approves. ROAR leaders said they have tried to fix the identification and other problems that disqualified their first petition and hope to be collecting signatures soon.

``We want to start that clock ticking so we can be out there by the first part of June,'' ROAR President Howard Rothenbach said.

In a tentative agreement reached last year, the airport would try to implement a curfew before the city approved plans to expand and relocate its 14-gate terminal, but the deal has subsequently fallen apart.

A meeting next Friday between officials from the city, the airport and the Federal Aviation Administration could bring a new direction to the negotiations, but ROAR isn't waiting for the outcome, Rothenbach said.

``We'd like to hear what they have to say before we hit the streets but we want to be out in front of this revision,'' he said. ``We're not going to react to what they're doing, we're going to do what is best for the community.''

Councilman David Laurell, who has opposed the ROAR initiative, said the renewed negotiations between the city and the airport authority are positive steps but, to him, ROAR is not.

``If there are individuals who want to go through the initiative process, knock yourself out,'' he said. ``The first time around I could understand what they were doing. We were having some rocky negotiations the first time around. . . . Now we have so many positive things going on. I feel good about the way we're moving forward.''

But ROAR members remain firmly opposed to any deal approved without an absolute promise of a curfew and caps.

A draft of ROAR's new petition states that the city shall not approve a terminal of more than 14 gates and 200,000 square feet unless the authority agrees to various conditions.

They include:

--``A legally obtained irrevocable, enforceable and binding mandatory curfew.''

--A ban on aircraft that don't meet noise limits.

--A cap on flights and passengers.

In March, the group submitted 7,400 signatures, more than the 5,214 signatures needed to be put on the February 2001 ballot.

But the petition was rejected by the city clerk because the city's attorneys found problems with it, including failure to properly identify the group behind it and a statement of reasons for the petition.

The city is expected to vote Tuesday to put a measure of its own on the November ballot that would give voters a chance to have the final word on any deal before the City Council can give its approval.