Pilots May Face Stiffer Noise Rules : Van Nuys Airport: Panel considers reduced nighttime hours and quieter takeoffs. Residents fear rezoning that would eliminate homes.

By HUGO MARTIN

Nov. 30, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

A panel studying ways to reduce aircraft noise at Van Nuys Airport is likely to back a proposal that extends a nighttime noise limit and requires pilots to reduce airplane thrust during takeoffs, city and airport officials said this week.

But a public meeting on the matter on Monday is expected to draw scores of homeowners who fear the panel is considering the elimination of a large number of houses near the airport--a proposal that airport officials say has been all but ruled out.

The concerned homeowners cite history. In 1958 and 1959, city officials condemned and purchased about 600 properties in order to expand the airport and extend a runway across Sherman Way, turning what had been a residential neighborhood into a golf course, they said.

The meeting has been scheduled to take public comment on 10 noise-reduction plans drafted by a technical panel of city and airport officials, who report to the Van Nuys Airport Part 150 Committee, a group named after a section of Federal Aviation Administration rules dealing with community participation in airport noise studies.

The Part 150 Committee, which has been working for three years to find ways to reduce airport noise, will meet again Dec. 9 to consider backing one of the 10 alternatives.

Both meetings are expected to attract dozens of angry homeowners who fear that the committee is considering rezoning their neighborhoods for industrial and commercial uses to make the area compatible with the airport.

Airport officials said there had been a proposal in July to change the zoning of a residential area of almost 1,600 homes. But they said the proposal is not one of the alternatives being considered.

The idea was “very casually batted around,” said airport spokeswoman Diane Sayre. “It’s not even going to be a recommendation.”

Still, members of two groups critical of the airport, Homeowners of Encino and Ban Airport Noise, have distributed thousands of flyers in neighborhoods around the airport, warning residents about the rezoning plan.

A zoning change would prohibit residential property owners from building new homes or from rebuilding houses that are significantly damaged in a natural disaster and would encourage businesses to buy up property offered for sale, gradually squeezing out residents.

A headline in a flyer distributed by Ban Airport Noise says: “Don’t Let Van Nuys Airport Take Away Your Property Rights.” Homeowners of Encino distributed flyers headed: “Urgent--Act Now to Stop Rezoning Around Van Nuys Airport and Increased Jet Noise.”

Maurice Laham, an airport environmental manager and chairman of the technical panel, said neighbors have no reason to panic. “The rezoning is a red herring,” he said. “It probably won’t happen.”

Laham said the technical panel is likely to back a proposal to require pilots to ease up on thrust during takeoffs and to expand by one hour a nighttime ban on departures by the noisiest planes--those classed by the FAA as making 74 decibels of noise on takeoff. The current noise curfew extends from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. The proposal would begin the curfew at 10 p.m.

By comparison, normal conversation heard three feet away measures 65 decibels, and a typical power lawn mower measures 97 at the same distance.

But Gerald A. Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino, said the proposal does not go far enough to reduce noise at the nation’s busiest general aviation facility.

“That won’t buy us a dime’s worth of improvement,” Silver said. He said his group wants the airport to impose a noise limit throughout the day and to prohibit all jet takeoffs at night, except for emergency flights.

Don Schultz, a member of the Part 150 Committee and president of Ban Airport Noise, said the proposal to rezone residential areas was not “casually batted around.”

He cited a July 16 report by the technical panel that recommended the rezoning of 146 acres--nearly 37 acres north of the airport, and about 109 acres to the south.

Schultz said he is happy that the rezoning proposal is not among the 10 alternatives supported by the technical panel. But he said he still fears that the rezoning proposal may be considered.

Before a noise-reduction plan is adopted, however, it must win the approval of the city Planning Commission, the City Council and the FAA, said Tom Henry, vice chairman of the Part 150 Committee and a deputy to City Councilman Joel Wachs.

Henry said he doubts a rezoning proposal would survive the extensive city approval process. “I personally think it’s a quick fix and is not addressing the problem of noise.”

Still, Henry said he expects many angry homeowners to show up Monday to protest the rezoning proposal.

“I think there could be a pretty big crowd,” he said. “I hope panic hasn’t started.”

He said he supports the proposal to extend the noise limit and require pilots to reduce takeoff thrust. “It works at other airports,” he said. “If you look at it economically, it’s the fairest.”

A veteran pilot who flies out of Van Nuys Airport said such a takeoff rule would not be a hardship for fliers. “It’s no big thing,” said Randy Kramer, a TWA pilot for 35 years and now a member of the Condor Squadron, a flying club based at the airport. “It demands a little more performance out of a pilot. However, there is nothing unsafe about it.”

He said members of the Condor Squadron routinely try to reduce airplane noise by easing up on the thrust while taking off.