Dear UproarLA supporters,
We hope this note finds you safe and well. It has been an absolutely unprecedented year, on so many levels. On top of this, the issue of the illegal flight tracks out of Burbank Airport remains. Although the pandemic has brought some relief from the growth of traffic out of BUR, the simple fact is that it has not gone away, and already has begun to increase again.
We are sending this note to keep you updated on some important milestones:
1: First the FAA/BUR has released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement ("DEIS”) for the NEW REPLACEMENT TERMINAL at BUR. The DEIS is more than 1000 pages long. It calls for the minimum comment period with comments due by October 5, 2020. The FAA will also hold two virtual public workshops and a virtual public hearing in less than a month from now. The virtual public workshops are both scheduled to be held on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020 (1pm and 6pm), and the virtual Public Hearing is set to be held the next day on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020 at 6pm. To see the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (“DEIS”), go to https://bobhopeairporteis.com/.
We OPPOSE the Terminal Expansion WITHOUT A FIX of the BUR flight paths. If pursued in the absence of a CORRECTION OF THE ILLEGAL FLIGHT PATHS, the expansion will burden our communities further with higher passenger demand and more air traffic, and the capacity for larger, louder jets. While UproarLA’s mission is currently focused on mounting a legal campaign to oppose the flight paths, we as a community can pressure our representatives and FAA and BUR to halt this project until the resolution of the City of LA’s suit against the FAA and a fix to the flight paths out of BUR. Studio City for Quiet Skies is a great resource for this issue - please see their most recent newsletter on this issue HERE.
2: The FAA has responded to the Task Force’s recommendations. You can read their response letter here: https://hollywoodburbankairport.com/noise-environment/noise-task-force/. While it seems as though there are some actions that could be taken and are potentially “technically and/or operationally feasible” per the FAA response, everyone in the community should be asking our representatives on the Task Force to provide accountability and next steps.
UproarLA's mission is, and always has been, to sue against the "proposed" BUR procedures becoming permanent, which can’t happen till the paths publish. We know firsthand how devastating these paths are to our community and appreciate everyone's time, effort and energy toward this fight. We understand there is frustration around how long this process has played out, and share in that collective frustration as a team of volunteers that has spent the last few years and countless hours fighting this issue. We have always known that a combination of pressure from our community, our representatives, and a lawsuit would be needed to win this.
Regardless of the Task Force’s recommendations and the City's suit against the FAA, the FAA can still try and move forward with those procedures. UproarLA and our lawyers have been laying the legal groundwork for our potential case in this lawsuit over the past few years, which would be once the EA is complete and the paths are published. While the FAA continues to lack requested transparency around its EA and publishing date, now that the Task Force recommendations are in and the FAA response has been filed, we continue to expect the publishing date to be shared in the coming months. As we have additional news on the timing of this, we will continue to share these updates with the community on our next steps.