Airport project a joint effort

Los Angeles' airport department, known as Los Angeles World Airports, agreed Tuesday to work with Palmdale to develop the airport, which sits on part of Air Force Plant 42.

During the closed-session portion of tonight's Palmdale City Council meeting, the city will vote on its end of the deal, which is being called a "cooperation agreement."

Palmdale's Community Redevelopment Agency also is part of the development team, according to the agreement.

The pending agreement comes on the heels of a feasibility study regarding the future development of the airport that indicates Palmdale can support a regional airport similar to those now in Burbank and Ontario.

Officials from Los Angeles World Airports and Palmdale said the new agreement is one step toward that future. If approved, the agreement will pro vide two things.

First, Palmdale will get 40 acres of airport land near Avenue P-8 and 20th Street East, where it will build a detention basin to protect the airport from flooding.

Second, Palmdale will get a major portion of the long-awaited Avenue P-8 corridor that Mayor Jim Ledford has talked about for the past several years.

Los Angeles World Airports would dedicate a 300-foot-wide access on its land from 15th Street East to 110th Street East, and allow a future rail project down the center of the property. That access eventually could help provide freeway access to the airport and a Palmdale Boulevard bypass for easier access to Highway 138.

Ledford was reluctant to talk about specifics of the deal before its approval, but spoke with enthusiasm about building some sort of air service base at the airport, which hasn't had passenger service since United Express left in April 1998.

"We've got an agreement with the Air Force to fly 50 flights a day and, eventually, 400 flights a day out of Plant 42," Ledford said. "Right now, we're at zero. We've got to build something."

Ledford said he's not interested in pushing for development of 17,500 acres east of Plant 42 owned by Los Angeles World Airports. He'd rather keep Palmdale's air service in the regional category so it won't interfere with Plant 42 operations. Plant 42 is home to operations of global aerospace companies like Northrop Grumman, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Plant 42 is where Northrop built the famed B-2 Spirit stealth bomber. Boeing services the nation's fleet of space shuttle orbiters there and is in a race with Lockheed Martin to build the joint strike fighter, an aircraft expected to serve all branches of the military.

"Aside from Edwards Air Force Base, Plant 42 is our economic anchor," Ledford said. "We wouldn't want to do anything to threaten that."