Agency backs regional air plan

Both proposals ultimately could solve many Antelope Valley transportation problems, Palmdale City Councilman David Myers said.

Myers was among those attending SCAG's 1999 General Assembly, which brought together association representatives from 185 cities and six Southern California counties: Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and Imperial.

Myers represents Palmdale, Lancaster and Santa Clarita on SCAG's subregional board.

Representatives provide the local information SCAG uses to guide the development of housing and transportation infrastructure throughout the region. SCAG, in turn, is one of 28 regional authorities that helps the state set its housing and transportation priorities.

The first proposal, supported by a unanimous vote of the General Assembly, "specifically directs the (association's) Aviation Task Force to develop a regional airport plan for Southern California," Myers said.

That proposal, which also drew the support of two city council representatives from Los Angeles - Mike Hernandez and Hal Bernson - means SCAG fully supports an alternative to the expansion of Los Angeles International Airport, Myers said.

The expansion plan was submitted by Los Angeles World Airports, the city's airports department, to cope with future air-traffic growth.

"That's not necessarily bad news for LAX," the councilman said, because supporters of LAWA's plan also have called for increased regional dispersion of air-traffic services.

But Thursday's vote "really puts the muscle" of SCAG behind the calls for dispersion, Myers said.

The association's task force will come up with a plan to make Southern California's other regional airfields, such as the one in Palmdale, viable airports, he said. "The momentum is really moving in our direction."

Palmdale's regional airport, at Air Force Plant 42, currently offers no passenger service despite the area's population of more than 300,000. Most Palmdale, Lancaster and Santa Clarita residents must drive to Burbank, Ontario or LAX to take advantage of commercial flights.

According to Myers, outgoing SCAG President Bob Bartlett said the decision "was probably the first and last unanimous vote on airports."

Bartlett, the Monrovia mayor, was slated to be replaced as president of SCAG Thursday evening by L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

As part of its regional-transportation plans, SCAG has been supporting the construction of a magnetically levitated train system connecting such regional airports.

In doing so, the association has been flying in the face of plans by the California High-Speed Rail Authority, which has been seeking construction of a wheel-to-rail bullet-train system connecting Los Angeles with San Francisco, with a stop in Palmdale.

SCAG has been seeking a maglev rail system connecting train stations in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Anaheim, Corona, Van Nuys and Santa Clarita with airport in Burbank, Palmdale, Riverside, Ontario and Los Angeles to give travelers better access to those facilities.

As a result, SCAG and the state agency were vying for the funds available from the private investors and public agencies interested in high-speed rail systems. Because of that conflict, Gov. Gray Davis had been blocking SCAG's receipt of a $6 million federal grant to study magnetic-levitation technology.

Because of a deal brokered by California Sen. Barbara Boxer, SCAG will receive the money in return for cooperating, not fighting, with the state agency.

Marking that move, SCAG's General Assembly voted Thursday to support language stating SCAG and the state authority would work closer together on the development of a bullet-train system, Myers said.

That language "stresses connectivity to existing airports," which pleased SCAG, while dropping SCAG opposition to other bullet systems in Southern California, which pleased the state authority, he said.

Six points contained in the new language "really opened the door for collaboration" between the two agencies, Myers said.

Both are eager to obtain private funding, he said. Neither want to see public funding evaporate because of politics.

Acceptance of the new language benefits Palmdale because either system would run through the city.

Because bullet-train technology is so new in the United States, elected officials are unsure whether voters will approve of the sales tax and bond measures that may be needed to fund such systems, Myers said.

The $6 million grant obtained by SCAG was part of the $60 million set aside by federal legislators to study the feasibility of mag-lev rail technologies in fiscal years 1999 to 2001.

An additional $950 million in federal funds was authorized to develop mag-lev demonstration projects for fiscal years 2000 through 2003.

In mag-lev technology, there is no contact between rails and the trains, which could travel as fast as 350 mph.

Construction of the state rail authority's system, which may use mag-lev or a slower, cheaper highspeed technology, could cost as much as $23 billion.

Caltrans has been studying costs, funding methods, routes and technology for a high-speed train system since 1993. The system would reduce travel time, take numerous vehicles off state highways and improve air quality.