Request for Palmdale Airport project takes flight

Members of the California Transportation Commission collected requests for funding from across the state, including counties, cities and quasi-governmental agencies for improvements to air, rail, bus, seaport and motor-vehicle transportation facilities.

Funding for the Palmdale Airport project was part of numerous requests submitted by Los Angeles World Airports, an agency of the city of Los Angeles that oversees several Southland airports, including the Palmdale Regional Airport.

In its request, LAWA asked for more than $2.52 billion for ground-access improvements for Los Angeles International, Ontario International and Palmdale airports.

The 14 Freeway extension would carry motorists east from the 14 Freeway directly into the Palmdale Regional Airport.

Part of the right-of-way needed lies on property owned by LAWA.

All the statewide requests were sought by the state Senate "to inventory the need for operations and infrastructure-improvement funding," said Robert Remen, the commission's executive director.

The purpose was "to identify those agencies views regarding their need for additional funding over the next 10 years for various purposes," Remen said.

The bulk of the money requested would be spent on improvements for LAX, for which LAWA has requested $575 million for a Metropolitan Transit Authority Green Line commuter-train extension and $3 million each for road improvements to the Sepulveda Boulevard tunnel and La Tijera Boulevard.

The funding requests will be incorporated into a 10-year needs assessment of the state's transportation system in accordance with Senate Resolution 8, authored by Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco.

The projects deemed worthwhile would be funded under a $16 billion general-obligation-bond measure, Senate Bill 315, proposed by Burton that has yet to be approved by voters.

The bond measure is expected to appear on the statewide ballot in November 2000. If approved, the bonds would be sold to fund the Transportation Infrastructure Bond Act of 2000, the Transportation Infrastructure Bond Act of 2002, the Transportation Infrastructure Bond Act of 2004, and the Transportation Infrastructure Bond Act of 2006 in the amount of $4 billion each.

Wednesday's meeting of the California Transportation Commission was intended only to gather the requests in order to compile a report to be submitted to the Legislature on Monday, Remen said.

The meeting was intended neither to set priorities for the requests nor to approve funding for them, he said.

The commission simply accepted the information "and directed staff to have it published and sent to the Legislature," Remen said. "It was not a decision-making exercise."

Nancy Castles, director of communications for LAWA, said her department was among nine airport agencies submitting requests for funding under the proposed $16 billion bond measure.

If approved by the Senate, the requests then will have to be approved by the Assembly, probably through a compromise committee, Castles said. Even if approved, the requests will be at the mercy of the voters in the year 2000.

Besides LAX, Ontario International and Palmdale Regional, LAWA also operates the Van Nuys airport.