Supervisors back regional airport growth

By LISA WAHLA
Valley Press Staff Writer

Supervisors who support ex-panding regional air passenger service say a Los Angeles World Airports $12 billion master plan, unveiled Jan. 18, overlooks the benefits of regional airport expan-sion while increasing congestion and pollution for LAX's neighbors.

Because of her support of re-gional air service, Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who represents the 2nd District, offered a motion for supervisors to formal-ly reject Los Angeles World Air-ports' master plan.

That motion opened the door for more of the ongoing debate about what is better for the region - LAX expansion or regional air ser-vice around the Southland.

Los Angeles World Airports owns and operates LAX, Palmdale, Ontario and Van Nuys airports, and if expansion plans materialize, LAX will serve 89 million air trav-elers a year in an airport rede-signed in 1984 to handle 40 mil-lion passengers a year; LAX now serves about 65 million passengers a year.

Estimates project that by 2020, regional air travel demand will reach 157 million passengers a year.

Palmdale Regional Airport's last commercial passenger flight took off in April 1998. The airport was cited by several supervisors as a possible key to easing congestion at LAX.

Supervisor Michael D. Antono-vich, whose 5th District includes Palmdale, has suggested city of Palmdale officials use eminent do-main to take over Palmdale Air-port, which Los Angeles World Airports has owned since the 1960s.

"There are 2 million people, close to 3 million, in the Antelope Valley surrounding area that could be utilizing an airport in the Antelope Valley," Antonovich said Tuesday.

And, he added, Palmdale Air-port's owners have "failed to mar-ket" it adequately.

"They are not moving aggres-sively forward as their report pointed out in addressing the An-telope Valley for another 20 years," Antonovich said. "Well, they've had nearly 40 years to address that problem and they've failed to do it."

In the recent past, Los Angeles World Airports officials have stat-ed their commitment to their re-gional airports and hired a firm to market Palmdale's Airport to air-lines.

Supervisor Brathwaite Burke said regional airports should be better utilized because of LAX's negative effects on its surrounding residents.

"Airport officials have conceded that expansion will cause many problems in the surrounding com-munities, communities which are (made up) mostly of minority neighborhoods which have en-dured a disproportionate amount of environmental hazards," Burke said in a motion to formally oppose the master plan.

"Any expansion will displace residents and businesses, and traf-fic congestion, aircraft noise and pollution will increase."

Supervisors on Tuesday delayed voting on Burke's motion for 90 days - to give time to a county-hired consultant to report back on the plan's possible effects.

Los Angeles Airport Commis-sion President John J. Agoglia said Tuesday he was glad the county supervisors delayed voting on their opposition measure and was "surprised" that the motion was considered at the beginning of the public comment period.

"Waiting for all comments and responses before a vote would be, in our view, an appropriate action," Agoglia said in a prepared state-ment.

Brathwaite Burke said she sup-ports modernizing and enhancing LAX, but increasing the passenger capacity must be looked at "from a regional perspective."

Then Supervisor Don Knabe, whose 4th District includes LAX, said there are plans to resurrect the Southern California Regional Airport Authority, which will meet in March to discuss the mas-ter plan.

Knabe said the regional per-spective will be the main issue the Regional Airport Authority will discuss when it meets. He has pushed for that airport authority's resurrection for months and said the "timing is perfect" for the 15-year-old group to reconvene.

The organization, dormant since 1992, consists of Los Ange-les, Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties, the city of Los Angeles and the Southern Califor-nia Association of Governments.

While the airport authority can review the LAX plan and make suggestions, each voting member - one from each of the four coun-ties and one from the city of Los Angeles - has veto power over is-sues in their own jurisdiction.

L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, who backs the LAX expansion plan, would choose the L.A. city representative, Knabe said.

"It gives us the opportunity to push Palmdale," Knabe said. "On-tario wants more air business and Palmdale wants an airport. To me it's ludicrous ... to not look at those other options."

Los Angeles World Airports' 12,000-page draft master plan is available for public comment for six months. A revised plan will be submitted to various decision-making bodies in 2002 for approval.