Businesses hear pitch for airport

"I've owned property in Lancaster since the 1950s" said O'Connell, who in retirement helps manage a church jewelry store in Woodland Hills. That's the duty she skipped out on to attend the meeting.

"I really hope and pray the Palmdale Airport gets developed," O'Connell said. "I've been waiting a long time." Her raw desert land sits at Avenue G near 10th Street East.

The meeting O'Connell attended was a panel discussion sponsored by the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, or VICA, which promotes economic growth in the San Fernando Valley region.

Tuesday's panel was a full pro-Palmdale slate, and included Assemblyman Scott Wildman, D-Burbank; David Foy, district director for Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Santa Clarita; Larry Grooms, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance; and Mary G. Albers, a senior management analyst with Los Angeles World Airports.

Robert L. Rodine, a Sherman Oaks financial consultant and co-chair of the VICA subcommittee on aviation, moderated the discussion. He said VICA has no opinion of whether Palmdale's airport should be developed, and called Tuesday's meeting to learn more about the possibilities.

Wildman, who sits on an Assembly select committee that studies the long-term needs of commercial and general aviation, said he's been impressed with the enthusiastic support in the Antelope Valley for development of the Palmdale Airport. His committee held a public hearing in May to discuss the issue, and no one spoke against the airport.

That wasn't the case at a similar hearing in El Toro, where plans to convert the former Marine base into an airport have met with hot opposition.

Wildman said some developers think the land is worth far more as potential home sites than as an airport.

"In Palmdale, it was very simple," Wildman said. "The people want an airport."

Grooms, CEO of the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance, said there are actually two Palmdale airports. The first is the 17,500 acres of undeveloped land owned by Los Angeles World Airports. The second is the terminal LAWA leases at Air Force Plant 42.

Up to 50 operations, or 25 flights daily, are allowed under an agreement between LAWA and the Air Force. But no commercial flights currently leave the runway. United Express, the last carrier to serve Palmdale, left in April 1998, citing lack of profitability.

Foy, representing McKeon, brought some levity to the discussion when he spoke of the elusive Palmdale Airport.

"If you've lived in the Antelope Valley for a long time, you know that the Palmdale Airport is like Bigfoot or an urban legend," he said. "Lots of people talk about it, but no one's sure they've ever seen it."

He's confident that will change, though, because of a new marketing agreement between Los Angeles World Airports and the city of Palmdale. Announced Oct. 1, it calls for aggressive marketing of Palmdale as an alternative to busy Los Angeles International Airport. The goal is to lure airlines to Palmdale.

Albers, a senior management analyst with Los Angeles World Airports, said the marketing strategy is to convince air carriers to go to Palmdale, not to force them to do so.

That requires improvements, which she said are being made or will be made. But population is what ultimately drives development of an airport, Albers said.

Back when LAWA's predecessor, the Los Angeles Department of Airports, bought 17,500 acres of land in Palmdale in 1966, planners expected Los Angeles' growth to move toward Palmdale. Instead, it sped east along Interstate 10 toward Riverside.

"That's why we've invested in Ontario," Albers said. "Now we see the growth going to Palmdale."

Reflecting on the meeting, Lancaster landowner O'Connell said she's glad to see renewed interest in development of Palmdale Airport.

"It's as if the idea just went to sleep," she said. "Now all of a sudden there is a renewed interest. People can see the reality of it now."