For nearly 25 years, Kaplan Kirsch has represented the City of Burbank in its relationship with the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, the entity operating the Hollywood Burbank Airport in Southern California. The City and the airport sponsor had been in conflict since the late 1960s over noise and other impacts. This dispute produced the seminal U.S. Supreme Court case defining airports’ proprietary powers in the United States. Ownership of the airport later shifted from a private entity to a three-city authority. Still, that change did little to reduce the historically tense relationship between the airport and its neighbors.
The Firm was first retained to advise and assist the City in opposing a proposed expansion of the Airport’s terminal. Over the following decade, this work involved federal and state environmental reviews and more than a dozen lawsuits, including precedent-setting cases in federal and state court concerning the relationship between an airport and its host jurisdiction, as well as two trial-type administrative hearings on the airport sponsor’s obligations to address noise impacts. The engagement drew on many of the Firm’s practices beyond litigation, including airport law, legislative advocacy, local government law, election law, and environmental law. In the late 1990s, the Firm led negotiations for a seven-year litigation standstill paired with a development agreement allowing terminal improvements to meet contemporary design and security needs. The principle was that a détente might reduce tensions and open a path toward long-term peace between the airport and its neighbors.
The standstill proved remarkably successful. Kaplan Kirsch subsequently led the City in negotiations toward a final resolution of the now 45-year dispute over control and authority for the Airport’s future development. The resulting agreement restructured the Airport Authority’s governance to give City appointees greater influence over major airport decisions, established a development agreement for replacing the airport terminal on a new site, enabled adjacent property to be used for airport-oriented commercial development, and approved the replacement terminal itself—the first new passenger terminal at the airport in more than 80 years. Voters approved the final set of agreements in a November 2016 referendum. The Airport Authority is now conducting planning and environmental reviews for the new terminal and coordinating with the City and property owners on adjacent development that may include a station for the proposed California High-Speed Rail project.
