Public Hearing Scheduled on Airport Noise Proposal

For the second time this year, Los Angeles airport commissioners will face a growing controversy over increased flights by noisy jets and helicopters at Van Nuys Airport.

Homeowner groups and airport supporters are expected to clash at a public hearing Wednesday over whether controls should be imposed to restrict or phase out noisy aircraft. After the hearing, commissioners may make a recommendation on a proposal, which has been studied for almost two years after a decade of debate.

A meeting space with capacity for more than 700 has been reserved for the 7 p.m. hearing, to be held in the Concorde Rooms at the Airtel Plaza Hotel, 7277 Valjean Ave.

A capacity crowd packed a commission hearing on the issue in January--the first time the policymakers agreed to meet in Van Nuys in nearly four years.