We die so the 1% can fly. This is a rallying cry for many homeowners’ associations and groups seeking a smaller, quieter Van Nuys Airport.
VNY is the busiest general aviation airport in the United States, with more than 300,000 flight operations a year. These flights originate in the middle of a densely populated urban landscape. No city planner in his right mind would ever allow such a busy airport to be situated in the middle of the San Fernando Valley as it exists now.
Los Angeles World Airports, or LAWA, has every year expanded the airport’s operations despite hostility from the community. In the last three years, VNY has logged more than 1 million complaints for noise. Management says nothing can be done as they seek to expand the airport, utilizing its existing space to accommodate more jets, helicopters and propeller planes.
Every community under its flight paths and surrounding the community has made numerous complaints to officials of LAWA, the Board of Airport Commissioners, the Los Angeles City Council and the mayor, to no avail. Despite protests and objections from the community, LAWA is now trying to push forward a new 70,000-square-foot helicopter monstrosity that can also park jets, thereby increasing air traffic and helicopter noise. It should be noted that helicopters have a much worse safety profile than fixed-wing aircraft.
Residents from Encino, Sherman Oaks, Lake Balboa, Van Nuys, Tarzana, North Hills and Bel Air must live with the disrupting influence of the loud and low jets flying over their homes and businesses. Residents report their homes shaking, never being able to open windows, their conversations interrupted, unable to use their backyards, the smell of jet fuel inside and outside their houses, not being able to get a full night’s sleep, and black soot all over their yards, windowsills, plants, and probably their lungs.
The airport is not an asset to the San Fernando Valley. VNY’s boosters often tout the positive economic aspects of the airport, but it is a large financial drain on the community. The airport has impacted property values wherever its flight paths go. Hundreds of millions of dollars of equity are lost due to the bad-neighbor policies of VNY. Property values in Encino on a square-foot basis are lower than comparable properties in neighboring communities because Encino gets the most direct overflights from VNY.Â
The pollution from the airport is immense. Residents in the “pocket,” a Van Nuys neighborhood, report planes idling and blowing exhaust into their neighborhood for hours. The Air Quality Management District refuses to take readings around the airport, a sure sign of the immense pollution emanating from VNY.
People, especially children, are being dosed with small but significant amounts of lead from the 400-plus propeller-driven aircraft, most of which need leaded fuel to fly. Lead is a well-known neurotoxin, and there is no safe level of exposure for children, which is why it was outlawed for surface transportation.
Since 1990, more than 6,000 studies have shown that exposure to low levels of lead early in life diminishes IQ and memory and has a detrimental effect on behavior. The 12 schools within 2 miles of the airport are undoubtedly impacted by lead fuel. It is reported that every lesson is interrupted by the takeoffs and landings of the planes. How can one quantify the financial impact of lead poisoning on families and the resulting learning disabilities?
Additionally, there is strong and increasing evidence that children exposed to chronic aircraft noise in a learning environment have poorer performance on standardized achievement tests than children who are not exposed to aircraft noise.
Scientists have raised grave concerns about the health effects of aircraft noise. The two main reasons are increased stress, which leads to an increased risk of high blood pressure (hypertension) and heart disease. The National Institute of Health has linked exposure to aircraft noise to a lower quality of life, anxiety, and disturbed sleep patterns.
Of course, the issue that nobody wants to discuss is the possibility of a catastrophic accident emanating out of VNY. Fatal accidents aren’t an unknown phenomenon at VNY. On April 29, a small plane taking off from Van Nuys airport crashed near Mulholland Drive, killing the pilot and nearly hitting the popular Beverly Glen shopping center. In September last year, two people died after taking off from VNY, crashing into a parking lot. The worst-case, but probable, scenario, is that a corporate jet or 737 with full fuel tanks crashes into the Santa Monica Mountains, causing a conflagration. That area is usually dry in late spring through late fall and has very narrow streets, making it hard for fire crews to reach the fire and evacuate the area.
It is now time for Los Angeles to copy what Santa Monica did to its airport and make VNY a smaller, quieter facility.
Eliot Cohen is president of Homeowners of Encino and is member of the VNY Citizens Advisory Committee.