New lighting schedule implemented at Bob Hope Airport transportation center
Rather than being on all the time, several areas in the transportation center at Bob Hope Airport will have about 50% of their lights on at different times.
The lights in the two-year-old transportation center at Bob Hope Airport are being dimmed at various times of the day and night in response to residents’ concerns.
A new lighting schedule has been implemented at the three-story center at the corner of Hollywood Way and Empire Avenue.
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This, officials say, will significantly reduce nighttime light being emitted from the facility.
Rather than being on all the time, several areas in the facility will have about 50% of their lights on at different times.
Some of the fixtures will be scheduled to turn on at 5 a.m., shut off at 8 a.m., and then be illuminated again at 5 p.m. and turned off again at 11 p.m., Alan Ball, project manager for AvAirPros Services, which manages the site, said during Monday’s Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority board meeting.
Ball added that additional fixtures could be turned on or off, depending on weather conditions, and that they could be programmed to activate or deactivate at specific times.
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Ball expects to see a 20% to 25% electricity bill reduction.
Ball showed the airport authority board a photo of the facility on Feb. 13 at 11:30 p.m., when the structure was fully lighted and could be seen from far away.
By comparison, another photo taken Feb. 26, around the same time of night with about half of the lights on, was significantly less jarring to those in attendance.
“We were impressed,” Commissioner Don Brown said Wednesday.
Some residents have expressed criticism of the transportation center, which has been open since July 2014, to the Burbank City Council for its bright lights being “a beacon that is on for 24 hours a day.”
“Some people have called it the ugly house or the ugly structure,” Brown said.
Ball told the airport authority board Monday that he had heard the comments and took them “”somewhat personally.” It was then his prerogative to address residents’ concerns.
Brown and other officials said that the airport authority board had not received any written or verbal complaints about the center during its nearly two years of operation.
Brown said the facility is surrounded by the airport, a Fry’s Electronics store and other businesses and is not near any homes.
“There [are] houses on Buena Vista [Street] and Vanowen [Street], but they’re not in a position where they can see it,” he said.
The airport authority board recommended to Ball that he bring his report to the City Council for residents to see and comment.
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