Comments
RESIGNATION LETTER -
Dear Members of the Citizens Advisory Council and Stakeholders,
After more than six years of service on this Council, I am resigning effective immediately.
This decision follows repeated and ongoing failures by this body—and the agencies it advises—to effectively address the clear, persistent, and growing harms caused by operations at Van Nuys Airport (VNY). Over time, I have seen indifference, obfuscation, subterfuge, and a strong bias toward the interests of well-connected private aviation operators, often at the expense of public health, neighborhood safety, and basic environmental justice.
Being situated in the middle of dense residential areas, schools, and parks, VNY has expanded its operations in ways that violate federal commitments under the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program (AIP) and associated grant assurances, including:
Documented Violations of FAA Grant Assurances:
1. Hazard Removal and Mitigation (Assurance 20):
LAWA has not properly managed air traffic hazards, including excessive jet noise, toxic lead emissions, and safety risks in residential areas, especially near schools and senior centers. Lead emissions and aircraft incidents in 2022 and 2023 are clear warnings of remaining issues.
2. Compatible Land Use (Assurance 21):
Flight paths routinely pass over incompatible land uses such as elementary schools and densely populated homes. This disregards urban land-use plans and exposes residents to noise and pollutants that harm health and reduce quality of life.
3. Consideration of Local Interests (Assurance 19):
Over one million noise complaints from Valley residents have mainly gone unanswered. The community’s needs are treated as a nuisance, not a priority.
4. Economic Nondiscrimination (Assurance 22):
LAWA appears to prioritize luxury and high-volume private jet operators, offering preferential treatment while communities shoulder the burden of environmental and safety costs.
5. Noncompliance with Noise Compatibility Planning (14 CFR Part 150):
VNY has not updated its Noise Compatibility Plan to reflect current traffic levels or the scientific understanding of noise’s impacts on human health.
6. Failure to Conduct Environmental Review (NEPA/CEQA):
VNY continues expanding operations, introducing new aircraft technologies and increasing traffic, without complete Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) and transparent public engagement, which is likely a violation of federal and state environmental law.
Human Health and Environmental Impacts
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), VNY is among the top ten worst airports in the U.S. for lead emissions, with children in Lake Balboa ranking in the 90th percentile statewide for exposure. Health studies link aircraft pollution to premature death, preterm birth, asthma, and childhood leukemia. Noise from aviation contributes to anxiety, stress, sleep disruption, hypertension, and other severe conditions. These harms are not hypothetical—they are already here.
Residents report diminished quality of life: chronic sleep loss, inability to use their yards, fear of crashes, and steady devaluation of property. These outcomes are not just unfair; they breach the public trust and may rise to willful gross negligence.
A Council in Name Only
The Citizens Advisory Council was conceived as a safeguard to represent neighborhood interests, question unchecked expansion, and hold Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) accountable. It has failed in that mission. Instead, it has become a stage-managed formality, increasingly dominated by members whose priorities align with commercial expansion, not community protection.
Council members, LAWA staff, and airport management continue to promote plans for increased jet traffic, vertical takeoff aircraft, air taxis, and more helicopter flights—all presented as innovations. These discussions often ignore the most critical issue: the health and safety of residents living under the flight paths. As traffic increases, so does the complexity of air traffic, which elevates the risk of catastrophic collisions.
Even reasonable proposals—such as relocating non-essential operations, like flight schools and repair facilities, to Palmdale Airport, where environmental and safety risks would be vastly reduced—are dismissed out of hand.
Enough is Enough
Van Nuys Airport is a known danger operating in violation of the standards and laws designed to protect the public. That the FAA, LAWA, the Board of Airport Commissioners, and this Council continue to ignore these violations while planning for more expansion reveals a system broken by neglect, captured by profit motives, and devoid of moral leadership.
For these reasons, I can no longer serve on a body that legitimizes this dereliction.
Final Statement
Let the record show that the people of the San Fernando Valley have not consented to being treated as a sacrifice zone for elite convenience and private luxury. If federal law, public health science, and community are to mean anything, then VNY's operations must be reevaluated, not expanded.
I resign in protest, hoping that my departure will prompt others to act with conscience and courage.
Sincerely,
Eliot Cohen
Former Member from Council District 5, Van Nuys Airport Citizens Advisory Council
Monday, July 7, 2025
(Eliot Cohen has been on the Neighborhood Council, serves on the Van Nuys Airport Citizens Advisory Council, and is on the Board of Homeowners of Encino and was the president of HOME for over seven years. Eliot retired after a 35-year career on Wall Street. Eliot is a critic of the stinking thinking of the bureaucrats and politicians that run the County, the State, and the City. Eliot and his wife divide their time between L.A. and Baja Norte, Mexico.)
