"Los Angeles airport proposal drawing support"

Sunday, October 17, 2004

Airport proposal drawing support
By LISA WAHLA HOWARD 
The Antelope Valley (CA) Press


As Los Angeles City officials come closer to approving Mayor Jim Hahn's $11
billion master plan to modernize LAX, support is growing for a new alternate
plan that aims to push growth to Palmdale and Ontario regional airports.

Councilman Bernard Parks presented his alternative to the L.A. County Board
of Supervisors last month, on the same day supervisors voted unanimously to
oppose the city's LAX proposal. The board also approved a motion by
Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich to consider the Parks plan, which
eliminates several components of Hahn's plan with which supervisors and
community groups near the airport take issue.

Hahn's proposal had little support until it was altered earlier this year by
L.A. Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, whose district includes the airport.
Under Miscikowski's "consensus plan," some of the most controversial
elements of Hahn's plan are "yellow-lighted," or given lower priority, while
more studies are completed. 

But Parks says that the "yellow light" must be replaced with a red light,
and he emphasizes that an approval of the consensus plan is an approval of
Hahn's plan as a whole. The most disputed portion is a new passenger
check-in facility about a mile east of the airport at Manchester Square,
which critics say will disrupt the community, add traffic and not provide
needed security because it concentrates a potential terrorist target -
crowds of airline passengers - in one area.

"The only consensus is between the mayor and Miscikowski," Parks said.
"There's no community consensus. . The county's consultant (A.C. Lazzaretto
and Associates) said the consensus plan is only a tool to implement the
mayor's plan incrementally."

The consensus plan and Parks' plan have several common elements in improving
LAX: both would upgrade the Tom Bradley International terminal to allow
usage by the next generation of jumbo jet, the Airbus A380, which will seat
30 more people than the largest Boeing 747s; both reconfigure the southern
runways to allow for larger planes and better prevent near-misses; and both
would construct a new consolidated rental car facility to reduce shuttle
traffic within the airport's inner loop.

Besides the Manchester Square proposal, the consensus plan also angers local
residents by calling for changes to the northern runways, changes that shift
the plane noise to affect new areas.

County officials reject plan

In their rejection of the consensus plan, county supervisors argue that the
environmental data used in the plan's Environmental Impact Report is
outdated, the plan will worsen air quality and traffic and it doesn't
address numerous issues brought up by the community. In addition, the
county's own Airport Land Use Commission voted in August that the consensus
plan doesn't comply with the county's airport land use plan; they mentioned
the noise shifting in their denial.

County supervisors also opposed a previous LAX master plan circulated in
2001 by former Mayor Richard Riordan, because they believed it didn't do
enough to promote growth at smaller, regional airports. That plan was
discarded after 9-11, when security became the airline industry's top
priority. In all, the city and Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency
that operates LAX, Palmdale, Ontario and Van Nuys airports, has spent $130
million conducting studies and producing plans for LAX over a 10-year
period.

After making necessary improvements to LAX, Parks' alternative plan then
focuses on producing a regional airport system. Instead of the four
independent airports that exist today, in Parks' vision, the airports would
work together with rail lines connecting them, so a passenger could land at
LAX and quickly move to Ontario or Palmdale to catch a connecting flight.
Cargo traffic could also be spread out to lessen the burden on the 405
freeway.

Hope for Palmdale?

Of course, one of LAWA's four airports has been practically unused for more
than six years. Palmdale Airport's terminal is ready for business, and
marketing studies show a healthy climate for travel to and from the Antelope
Valley, but 9-11 disrupted any momentum the airport's supporters had
gathered for attracting airlines.

Parks believes that if the consensus plan is put in action, little will be
done to promote expanded air service at the regional airports, and LAX, the
world's fifth busiest airport, will grow from 61 million annual passengers a
year to 90 million annual passengers a year. Parks would like to cap growth
at 78 million annual passengers a year.

"The current LAX master plan does not have a strong component for
regionalization, and that's the primary reason Supervisor Antonovich opposes
it," said Bob Haueter, an aide for Antonovich, who represents the north
county. "The Parks plan he has endorsed has a regional component to it that
includes Palmdale and Ontario, and points to the fact that Palmdale wants an
airport, and it's part of the vision L.A. city fathers had when they
purchased the land."

To promote Palmdale, Parks suggested changing the fee structure at the
airports to make the smaller airports more attractive to airlines. He also
suggests using a regional airport authority to address how to spread air
travel among Southern California's counties.

Antonovich's office is working with Parks' office to flesh out the plan,
which the former Los Angeles Police Chief-turned-councilman announced about
four months ago. For Parks' vision to become a reality, several things need
to happen, foremost being the setting aside of the consensus plan, which is
supported strongly by at least four councilmembers, Hahn, LAWA and an
association of domestic airlines that operate at LAX. The L.A. City Council
is expected to vote in December whether to accept the plan and make it a
city ordinance.

The vote by the county Airport Land Use Commission is seen as a key for
opponents of the consensus plan. 

The City Council, which is conducting various committee hearings on the plan
through September and October, must vote to override the county commission's
"no" vote. Then the county airport commission, comprised of the five
Regional Planning Commissioners appointed by the five supervisors, would
vote again. If it again rejected the plan, the City Council would have to
gather a four-fifths vote from its 15 members to put the plan into action.
It's unclear whether Hahn could gather the necessary votes.

"It appears from watching it intently that the salvation for the airport
might be within the Board of Supervisors," said Parks, who is hoping for a
formal endorsement from the board when his plan is finished.

Parks warns that even if the consensus plan is ultimately approved, various
cities, community groups and the county itself could sue to block its
implementation.

An aide for Miscikowski said a move toward Parks' plan would make the city
start over with the environmental studies, since some of the information
within the current EIR is 10 years old. That would be an expensive
proposition and could mean the $130 million the city has spent went for
nothing.

"To implement (Parks') plan would require substantial enough changes to the
EIR that it would need to be recirculated for public comment, and because
the baseline environmental data is from 1996, can that data withstand
another recirculation? It concerns us," said David Kissinger, Miscikowski's
aide. "The question is, do we wait or should we move forward? We have some
very serious runway issues, and there's the post 9-11 security question.
Let's prevent planes from bumping into each other, and let's provide (the
top) security to our passengers."

Parks disagrees with Kissinger about whether his plan would require a new
EIR. 

"It's a fallacy to say you've got to start over - they're trying to create a
'woe is me' atmosphere, saying that nothing will happen if you don't go
ahead with the consensus plan," Parks said. "If the material in the current
plan is acceptable for them to use in the consensus plan, it would be a
matter of pulling that material out for the Bradley terminal and runway
improvements."

Parks added that the consensus plan's EIR is so big as it is, he believes
each project within the master plan would require a site-specific EIR
anyway.

Kissinger said the consensus plan also aims for a cap at 78 million annual
passengers, by monitoring vehicle trips near the airport because the Federal
Aviation Administration prohibits airports from refusing airlines permission
to take off and land. He also defended the plan's regionalization component,
saying Miscikowski is calling for city support for a Regional Airport
Authority to help spread the growth in air travel among Southern
California's airports.

LAWA spokesman Paul Haney said the agency is promoting Palmdale's airport by
offering reduced facility fees for airlines, which would benefit Scenic
Airlines, the Las Vegas-based carrier that plans to offer flights between
Palmdale and Vegas. LAWA is in the second phase of producing the airport's
master plan which should be finished in late 2005 or early 2006.


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