California State Senate

Senator Adam B. Schiff

Twenty-First District

Chairman - Senate Judiciary Committee

February 4, 2000

Jane Garvey, Administrator

Federal Aviation Administration

800 Independence Ave., S.W.

Washington, D.C., 20591

Dear Ms. Garvey:

I am writing to urge the Federal Aviation Administration to immediately begin to work with the parties to the Burbank Airport Framework Settlement Agreement to identify and propose solutions to any legal, regulatory and policy issues presented by the agreement.

As you may know, the City of Burbank today informed the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority that the City believes it would be imprudent to continue negotiating a development agreement for a new terminal unless the FAA indicates that the proposed Framework Agreement is viable.

Early last year, I flew to Washington, DC and met with your staff to encourage the FAA to facilitate the process of applying for a mandatory curfew and other noise controls both through the federal Part 161 process and through other means. Your staff indicated that while the FAA was willing to work with the parties to facilitate a local resolution, it did not want to impose a solution from above and it was incumbent on us to do our part. Following that meeting, I hosted a Burbank Airport Summit, which brought together for the first time in a public forum all the parties to the dispute, including a representative of the city of Los Angeles, in an effort to identify common ground and begin a constructive dialogue. The parties did engage in sincere negotiations, and owing to their effort and determination, near the middle of the year, the City of Burbank and the Airport Authority jointly announced the Framework for Settlement.

It is clear that the parties to the airport dispute have demonstrated that they are willing to work cooperatively toward resolving this dispute, and we are now looking to the FAA for guidance and engagement in this process. The only public pronouncements of the FAA have come in a letter to the Los Angeles Times that stated that unidentified portions of the Framework Agreement violated federal laws in unspecified ways. It is vital that the FAA become constructively engaged in helping us to identify problems, propose solutions and ensure the drafting of conditions - through a settlement agreement - to the development of a new terminal that are legally defensible and will protect the quality of life in our surrounding communities. I would be happy to assist in facilitating any meetings or discussions toward that end.

I thank you for your attention to this matter and look forward to your response. If you have any questions, or if I may be of assistance, please do not hesitate to call.

Sincerely,

Adam B. Schiff

State Senator - Twenty-first District

ABS/ph