For years, residents near Van Nuys Airport have pleaded for relief from the noise and emissions drifting into their neighborhood. They’ve attended meetings, gathered signatures and pressed city officials to take action. But despite their efforts, they say little has changed.

Fed up with inaction, residents have taken matters into their hands–collaborating not with city leaders, but with airport tenants, to push for a noise-absorbing wall along Hayvenhurst Avenue. And the Van Nuys Airport tenants are offering to pay for the wall — a project that Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), a city of L.A. department, had stalled on.

“You boil it down to the basics: bypass LAWA. The tenants (are) willing to put up a wall. It would give us immediate relief,” said Suzanne Gutierrez, a resident living near the airport. “It’s not going to cure the problem, but it will give us some form of relief.” Gutierrez added, “They are pushing back,” referring to LAWA.

Gutierrez, who co-founded Fume Fighters United VNY, a community group focused on reducing emissions and noise from the airport, has been advocating for years. For Gutierrez and her neighbors, the issue isn’t just the noise—it’s about the fumes that drift into their homes from jets taking off and idling just beyond their backyards.

A longstanding issue

The neighborhood where Gutierrez lives is called “the pocket,” and it sits immediately west of Van Nuys Airport, where homes are separated from the runways by a short concrete wall, a row of trees, and a chain-link fence.

Residents in the pocket say they frequently smell jet fuel and worry about prolonged exposure to emissions from planes taxiing, idling and taking off yards away. They said the existing wall is too low to effectively block noise and emissions from aircraft.

With the backing of two Van Nuys Airport tenants, the residents in the neighborhood have proposed a 15-foot-tall sound-absorbing wall along Hayvenhurst Avenue.

Aeroplex Aerolease Group and Castle & Cooke, both tenants on the west side of the airport, have agreed to fund the more than $2 million project in exchange for a 5-year to 7-year lease extension. Aeroplex, which subleases to Castle & Cooke, has a lease that expires at the end of 2026.

In May 2024, the new CEO of Aeroplex Aerolease Group, Barry Rondinella, heard about residents’ concerns about the “pocket” and its proximity to Aeroplex’s leasehold when protesters showed up outside his company’s Long Beach headquarters and at Van Nuys Airport.

“I ran airports for 31 years, and being a good neighbor was always among the most important things we did at the airports I ran,” Rondinella said on Thursday, March 13.

After reaching out to the community, Rondinella learned about their idea for a wall that would serve as a noise and emissions barrier. Aeroplex Aerolease Group conducted a price analysis and estimated the wall’s cost at $2.2 to $2.5 million, and to recover that cost his company would need a 5-year to 7-year lease extension.

“Five was a little tight, seven was more comfortable,” Rondinella said.

Neighborhood supporters say the proposed wall, stretching roughly from 7550 Hayvenhurst Avenue to 7356 Hayvenhurst Avenue, would feature a curved arch designed to redirect emissions back onto airport property and help reduce the airport’s impact on nearby homes.

Los Angeles city officials respond

City officials at Los Angeles World Airports, which operates the Van Nuys Airport, say they need more time to evaluate the idea.

“At Van Nuys Airport we are committed to being good neighbors and addressing community concerns with transparency and diligence,” Van Nuys Airport Manager Jacob Haik said in a statement Wednesday, March 12. “We are open to exploring feasible solutions, including a wall.”

“Our process includes adhering to proper protocols such as CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) assessments, land use evaluations, collaborating with local elected offices and scientific analyses to assess potential impacts and benefits,” Haik said.

City officials said they got a proposal from an airport tenant to erect a wall after the idea was proposed two months ago at the Van Nuys Citizens Advisory Council–a panel of residents and stakeholders appointed by Board of Airport Commissioners, the mayor, and Los Angeles City Council members. The Citizens Advisory Council reviews issues affecting the Van Nuys Airport and provides recommendations.

“In January 2025, the Citizens Advisory Council discussed a community wall and the relevant VNY tenant followed up with a formal proposal,” Haik said. “We remain dedicated to collaborating with all stakeholders to identify solutions that balance the airport’s operational needs with the community’s quality of life.”

Rondinella disputed Haik, saying that officials at Los Angeles World Airports had the details and data about the noise-absorbing wall long before January, noting that he has been in talks with LAWA leaders for nearly a year. He said he first discussed the proposal informally with LAWA leadership in June 2024 and again in October after Haik took over as the new Van Nuys Airport manager.

“I’m just kind of confused as to what the hesitancy is,” Rondinella said.

Nearby residents also argue that city officials have had ample time to address their concerns.

Alicia Avery, who represents L.A. City Council District 6 on the Van Nuys Airport Citizens Advisory Council, said residents have been asking for higher walls along Hayvenhurst Avenue for at least four years.

In April 2023, Van Nuys Airport hosted a Vision Study Open House where “noise wall” was listed as one of several options under “buffer opportunity” in all three alternatives for a future specific plan or a new airport plan. Avery says that showed that LAWA knew the community wanted help but the city failed to act.

“That was part of three of their alternate options for the airport, but nothing was done to move forward with this, to resolve this,” said Avery, who lives south of the airport.

Timi Romolini, a legal research consultant working pro bono for the community and the tenants, said residents first requested a sound barrier in 2021. She pressed for it again in September 2023 during a public presentation, inviting LAWA to collaborate on a solution. In January 2025, Romolini introduced the concept at the Citizens Advisory Council meeting.

“I have been researching wall options, technology and materials since 2021,” Romolini said. “I, along with community, have invited and pleaded with LAWA to participate and collaborate on a barrier for the last three years. The request fell on deaf ears and even met unjustified resistance.”

Romolini said the wall proposal came to fruition as a direct response to City Councilmember Imelda Padilla’s motion in November 2023 calling for a new Specific Plan to replace the outdated Van Nuys Airport Plan and zoning ordinance.

The 2023 motion, introduced by Padilla and Councilmember Nithya Raman and adopted by the Los Angeles City Council in February 2024, directed the Department of City Planning to develop a Specific Plan for Van Nuys Airport. Among other objectives it sought to mitigate noise and other airport-related impacts, including installing a sound barrier between the airport and nearby homes and businesses, and creating green space.

But residents said their concerns went largely unanswered after they sent letters to Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Padilla, who represents the council district that includes the airport.

A spokesperson for Bass disagreed that residents’ concerns have been ignored.

“Mayor’s Office senior staff have engaged with the community members to help identify solutions on a range of concerns since Mayor Bass took office,” Zach Seidl, a spokesperson for Bass said in a statement Wednesday. “Our staff are working with the department and the Council Office to move the Van Nuys Airport Specific Plan forward quickly to address the community’s concerns.”

In a statement to this publication on Wednesday, March 12, Padilla’s office acknowledged the community’s concerns about noise and emissions from the airport and said that they are actively working with LAWA and the L.A. Planning Department to advance the Van Nuys Airport Specific Plan. They are also exploring feasible mitigation measures, including a noise-absorbing wall.

Her office also noted that in January the Citizens Advisory Council “moved a motion on this issue, and we are currently working with LAWA leadership to determine how the agency can fund this important mitigation measure.” Her office added, “This effort remains a priority, and Councilmember Padilla continues to engage with airport leadership to ensure progress. We will keep collaborating with stakeholders to balance airport operations with the quality of life in District 6.”

Residents want action

Avery, a member of the Citizens Advisory Council, said public support from Padilla would make a huge difference for the community.

“It would be nice to have her support, something to back up what the community needs and has been asking for,” she said.

As a business owner, Avery said she understands that tenants investing in property improvements would naturally expect a return on their investment. She believes a 5-year to 7-year lease extension in exchange for funding a noise-absorbing wall is a fair request. “To get back some of the money that they put into it, that makes sense,” she said. “LAWA has not provided the community with any kind of alternative.”

Gutierrez, the co-founder of Fume Fighters United VNY, said residents have exhausted every avenue—attending meetings, writing letters, and reaching out to officials—only to be met with a series of reasons why the airport can’t move forward with the wall.

“There are people in our community that have gone to these (Van Nuys Airport Citizens Advisory Council) meetings, have gone to these board meetings, have written letters to every single council person, to the mayor’s office, to our congressperson. Like, we’ve done this for years and years and years.”