"Ontario, Calif., airport weighs two plans to deal with rising passenger loads"

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Ontario, Calif., airport weighs two plans to deal with rising passenger
loads
The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Calif. 


Ontario International Airport officials unveiled two competing plans to
accommodate an extra 23 million passengers a year by 2030.

To meet that demand, the airport needs an additional 45 gates, 1.3 million
square feet of terminal space, 45 acres for rental cars and another 24,000
parking spaces, according to planning documents presented Tuesday by Los
Angeles World Airports.

Planners working for LAWA, a Los Angeles city agency that owns Los Angeles
International and Ontario International airports, say they're concerned
about a tentative growth plan that would build three additional terminals at
Ontario, creating a row of five terminals, and forcing aircraft onto a
common taxiway from their gates to the runway.

"The aircraft congestion on the north side with five terminals would cause
the airport to stop functioning," said Tim Merwin, project manager with
HNTB, a Santa Ana-based planning firm hired by LAWA. 

A second option would put only three terminals along the northern side of
the airport and build a fourth and much larger terminal south of the runways
along Mission Boulevard. According to preliminary drawings, that proposal
would mean new and expanded roads, new infrastructure to shuttle passengers
around the airport and the removal of swaths of industrial buildings along
the airport's perimeter.

Maria Fermin, a spokeswoman for LAWA, said the airport master plan is little
more than a preliminary sketch. 

Jim Ritchie, LAWA's deputy executive director for long-range planning, laid
out a two-year timeline to develop the final plan. 

On Tuesday, officials from Los Angeles World Airports and consultants
working for the agency met with local governments and the public to build
the scope of a pair of upcoming comprehensive reports intended to detail the
future impact of the airport's growth on nearby cities. 

Under current projections the airport's two terminals -- both of which
opened in 1998 -- will approach their theoretical limit of 10 million
passengers at the end of this decade. Volume would pass 20 million by 2020
and flirt with 30 million by 2030. Merwin said runway restrictions would cap
the airport at 30 million passengers. 

The environmental impact report and environmental impact statement will look
at air pollution, noise pollution, water pollution, traffic congestion, and
potential impacts on endangered species, energy resources and hazardous
materials as part of a laundry list of topics. Members of the public can
make suggestions on what should be included in the study by writing to LAWA
by Sept. 13. 

The agency plans to have drafts of the reports next summer. Those reports
will drive the decision on how to develop the airport with a final decision
possible by early 2006. Fermin said the planning process will cost $3.9
million.

LAWA is relying on research that predicts air-travel demand will roughly
double for the Los Angeles region in the next generation. As a result, the
region will need to accommodate another 50 million to 80 million travelers
each year. 

The controversial LAX master plan can add 20 million passengers there before
it tops out at 78 million. In 2002, Orange County residents rejected a
proposal to develop a commercial airport at the former El Toro Marine Air
Station that could have handled 30 million passengers per year. 

Now the primary pressure-relief valve is in Ontario. By 2030 LAWA predicts
that 1,267 aircraft will use the airport each day. The sheer volume creates
new concerns about local impacts. 

Claremont Councilwoman Jackie McHenry said residents are concerned about
flight patterns that bring planes over her city.

Airport consultant Alan Goldman said the airport will add considerably local
air pollution.

Others at the meeting asked for more research into the impact on the network
of roads.


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