"Los Angeles Officials Blast Mayor's Airport-Modernization Plans"

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

Los Angeles Officials Blast Mayor's Airport-Modernization Plans
The Los Angeles (CA) Daily News


Los Angeles County supervisors on Tuesday blasted Mayor James Hahn's plan
for modernizing LAX, saying it fails to meet the stated goal of improving
security and is a disguised way to massively expand its passenger traffic.

Hahn has said that LAX, which handled 61.6 million passengers in 2001 and
more than 56.2 million last year, would be capped at 78 million a year under
his $9.1 billion modernization plan. Members of the county Board of
Supervisors argued that it actually could allow for 130 million passengers a
year.

"I've said from the very beginning, and to some friends at the city, that
did it ever occur to them that this is not a plan to cap growth, but to
induce growth," Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said.

"You move the facility northeast by a mile, create room to widen runways to
accommodate bigger airplanes on bigger runways and still have plenty of room
left over because you moved the terminal a mile away. They are laying the
groundwork for a massive expansion of this airport."

The supervisors, approving the county's official response to the project's
supplemental environmental impact report, also said Hahn's plan could
undermine attempts to boost outlying airports such as Palmdale Regional
Airport and perpetuate harsh environmental impacts on nearby communities and
residents.

The supervisors voted unanimously to file the county's objections at a
public hearing Saturday on the mayor's plan for reconfiguring Los Angeles
International Airport, the world's third-busiest.

Hahn's spokeswoman Julie Wong said the supervisors based their analysis on a
hasty review by a consultant who looked at the mayor's plan, which is one of
several alternatives proposed for LAX.

"It does include some faulty data and assumptions, partially because the
consultant never asked the airport or the Mayor's Office for additional
information or any information about Alternative D," which is the mayor's
preferred plan, Wong said.

"The mayor has expressed his commitment to a regional air transportation
plan, not only through Alternative D, but in his work to expand Ontario
International Airport," Wong said. "We'd like to see a plan for Palmdale as
well. As the region is growing in population, it will get to the point where
it can support an airport."

In a report prepared for the supervisors, Andrew Lazzaretto, a consultant
who assembled a team of environmental and security experts to review Hahn's
plan, said there is a "real possibility" under the proposal that the airport
could be expanded substantially in the future.

"There is no practical cap in that document," Lazzaretto said. "We feel
there is no mechanism in place that would limit the size of the facility to
78 million passengers."

Carlyle Hall, chief counsel for Los Angeles World Airports, said
Lazzaretto's report contained a number of factual inaccuracies. He asked the
supervisors to postpone their vote Tuesday and offered to meet with the
supervisors and Lazzaretto's team to discuss Hahn's plan.


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