Palmdale airport study grounded

The study, described to the City Council Wednesday by Director of Planning Molly Bogh, would have given the city marketing information geared to answer the questions of interested passenger or cargo carriers.

It also would have positioned the city "in the best possible manner to allow for and facilitate airport expansion in terms of adjacent uses, protection of air space, construction of infrastructure and transportation improvements," Bogh said.

"Without knowing what the long-term growth needs of the airport are, the city may unknowingly do something that cuts off our options," she said.

The Department of Airports (DoA) of the city of Los Angeles, which controls Palmdale Regional Airport (PRA) and Los Angeles International (LAX), "is anticipating that the region served by LAX right now will generate 98 million passengers a year by the year 2015," Bogh said.

To accommodate those passengers, "they are proposing four alternative scenarios for LAX," she said. "All of those scenarios would only serve 90 million, so already there's an anticipated 8 million passengers that are not going to be served under any of their scenarios."

Each of those four solutions "will require major disruption of the area around LAX," she said. While 14% of the regional population resides within 90 miles of PRA, it handles only 1% of all airline trips.

"Based upon these numbers, it seems to staff that there is a potential for expansion" of PRA, Bogh said.

Rather than approving or rejecting Price Waterhouse's low bid on the study, the City Council voted 4-0, with Councilman Jim Root absent, to continue the item indefinitely so city officials could:

meet with Plant 42's Air Force officials to determine whether they are willing to allow more takeoffs and landings at PRA,

form an ad hoc committee of regional business and civic leaders to determine if there is a common interest in lobbying the Department of Airports for expansion in Palmdale rather than at LAX, and

review the 1997-98 municipal budget to see if the money will be available to fund such a study.

The postponement satisfied the concerns of council members Joe Davies, Terry Judge and David Myers.

Davies pointed out that while the DoA has expressed a great deal of interest in expanding LAX, it has shown little interest in expanding PRA.

"It seems to me the main effort we should be expending is to work very, very closely with the L.A. City Council people and the LAX airport commission to develop the rapport necessary to get them to hopefully change their minds," Davies said.

And such a study would be a waste of time and money if the Air Force is unwilling to let PRA grow, he said. "It seems to me we may have the cart before the horse."

Although he agreed to the delay, Mayor Jim Ledford argued strenuously for the study's approval as a means of taking control of the airport's destiny.

"What's the alternative that's going to get and rally and show leadership in the Antelope Valley on how we move on this airport?" Ledford asked his colleagues. "Leadership has been lacking, concerted effort has been lacking, and . . . we need to develop a package (of information) that we need to market" the airfield.

"How else are we going to get the package, unless we start somewhere?" he asked. "I don't want to stand around."

"I appreciate your leadership," Myers said. "However, having said that, we're talking about committing $150,000 out of a budget we haven't seen yet.

"So for no other reason, I would probably have a great deal of hesitancy approving that without having seen it in the context of a budget because I don't see the time as being critical," he said.

Also, "what I don't sense we have in the Antelope Valley is a collaborative," Myers said. "I would rather see us, to some degree, try to build that collaborative" before spending any money.

"I'm a little uncomfortable charging over the hill on my single horse without anybody behind me," he said.

"I think we can . . . do some preliminary footwork and make sure we have the support of the Air Force and some other things" before committing to an expenditure, Judge said.

The council needs to make sure "we've got our ducks all in a row and that we don't turn around and go, `Oh, great, we've spent $200,000 and now what are we going to do?' if the Air Force says no, or whatever," he said. "I want to make sure there are no obstacles in the way and that we've looked at every angle before we spend this kind of money."