Airport Issue

On a unanimous vote, the Burbank City Council has agreed to have voters approve any new Burbank Airport terminal. The vote took place Tuesday after the council refused to place a more restrictive ballot measure before voters. That proposal would have required voter approval of a new terminal, imposed a mandatory 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew and set a cap on future flights and passengers.

Does the endgame loom in the decades-long tussle over Santa Monica Airport? In 2015, all land and building leases at the airport expire, and city officials — and thousands of Westside residents weary of life in the flight path — say the obligation to operate the facility as an airport ends too. Santa Monica has hired consultants to study the 227-acre campus and early next year will begin asking for the public's input on potential future uses....

Orange County voters will have one more chance to affect the county's plans for an airport at the closed El Toro Marine base when they decide the fate of Measure F on Tuesday's ballot. The future of the 4,700-acre El Toro base is at the heart of the measure, which was written by a coalition of South County cities to protest a process they said tried to force an airport into an area that doesn't want it.

In a closed meeting scheduled for today, the Long Beach City Council is set to discuss whether to lease some, if not all, of the city's small commercial airport to private investors, a move that could generate millions of dollars in municipal revenue. The idea has already sparked controversy over whether such an important policy matter should be considered in secret and whether relinquishing control of a valuable city asset to a private company would be in the best interest of the public.

More than 250 people crowded into the Autry Museum of Western Heritage auditorium recently to hear the representatives of the cities of Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena and Los Angeles, and the Airport Authority, plainly state their vision for the new airport terminal and to publicly comment. State Sen.

Opponents of jet aircraft at Fullerton's city airport, who came up short in a bid to ban the jets via a city referendum, suffered another blow in Tuesday's election by failing to defeat City Council incumbents who voted for the jets. Election results, which have yet to be verified, showed incumbent Mayor A. B. (Buck) Catlin, 68, and Councilwoman Molly McClanahan, 49, winning new four-year terms.

Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who once firmly opposed an airport at El Toro, has softened his position recently as he has quietly told Republican Party leaders he is considering running for higher office in a pro-airport district. In the last month, Spitzer has met with Assemblyman Dick Ackerman (R-Fullerton) and several GOP leaders to lay out his plan to run for Ackerman's seat in the Legislature in 2000.

The City Council, which has been on a two-week holiday recess, delayed another two hours Tuesday night before breaking its silence on a lawsuit filed last month by attorney/pilot Clark Garen threatening to raze the homes of thousands of residents in a dispute over noise regulations at Torrance Municipal Airport.

Does the endgame loom in the decades-long tussle over Santa Monica Airport? In 2015, all land and building leases at the airport expire, and city officials — and thousands of Westside residents weary of life in the flight path — say the obligation to operate the facility as an airport ends too. Santa Monica has hired consultants to study the 227-acre campus and early next year will begin asking for the public's input on potential future uses....

I have studied the issues, reports and surveys, reviewed sundry newspaper articles and letters to the editor, asked many questions and listened to comments from diverse groups and individuals on the El Toro commercial airport issue. My deduction after much reflection is that if the El Toro airport were to become fully operational tomorrow, property values in the adjacent communities would increase for the following reasons: 1. Property values have been diminished by this divisive issue, exaggerated negative perceptions and the fears that are associated with the unknown.

Re "Brakes on Airport Plan," editorial, May 5: At last, a judge with some common sense. The Federal Aviation Administration should be reprimanded for approving the Mammoth Lakes airport to allow Boeing 757 aircraft to service the area. Of course it is going to affect the environment with the noise of the engines on arrival, and especially on departure. Safety is also an issue. That airport is not designed for commercial operations. As a pilot of 30 years, and having flown into the Mammoth airport, I know how quickly the weather can change in that area.

Burbank Airport officials had just completed a presentation to the Glendale City Council on their decision to scrap a decades-old plan to move the airport's passenger terminal when they were followed at the podium by two surprise guests. Burbank City Councilman Dave Golonski and Vice Mayor Stacey Murphy, both of whom slipped out of their own council meeting minutes earlier, took turns at the podium blasting the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority for its "irresponsible decision."

You've probably heard that Tuesday's election in Orange County was the death knell for an El Toro airport. That kind of talk disturbs me because I predicted in 1998 that the airport issue would be decided in a best-of-seven election series stretching to 2014. At the time, we'd had two elections. Since that prophecy, we've had two more. Tuesday's vote against the airport merely knotted the series at 2-2. In other words, this thing is just getting interesting. You didn't see baseball calling off the World Series last fall when the Yankees and Diamondbacks were tied up 2-2. How would we have had a thrilling Game 7 without Games 5 and 6?

When voters go to the polls Tuesday, they'll be electing an Orange County Board of Supervisors member who will have more on his or her plate than decisions about the reuse of the vacated El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Our 4th District supervisor will have to work effectively with four others on nitty-gritty, day-to-day county business matters, as well as issues with long-term consequences. I may not agree with Cynthia P. Coad on every position she has taken in her first four-year term on the board.

A by-the-numbers look at the so-called Great Park initiative shows it would not create any new taxes or tax increases, the Orange County auditor said Friday. But maintaining such a park at the former El Toro Marine base would cost the county $19 million over the next 18 years if it is approved by voters in March.

For six decades, Hawthorne Municipal Airport has been an important part of the Southern California aviation scene. But its days may be numbered. In 1939, Hawthorne officials lured aviation pioneer John Knudsen Northrop and his aircraft manufacturing business to town with the promise of a mile-long airstrip at his factory site. That brought the South Bay city a significant piece of the then-fledgling aerospace and defense industry.

Your editorial ("El Toro: Still an Open Question," April 19) is absolutely correct, when you said, "We had the cart before the horse" with the El Toro airport issue. That same reason is why the panicky South County folks are trying everything but a constitutional amendment to block an El Toro commercial airport that they must imagine will look like LAX. In fact, no one knows what kind of airport can be planned, or even if one could be built, that would have the necessary minimal negative impact on surrounding residents.

Be assured that if Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan's mission in coming to Orange County had been to oppose building the El Toro commercial airport, Larry Agran and his South County colleagues would have welcomed him with open arms. While there may not be an airport capacity crisis today, there will be one sooner than Agran states in his Jan. 17 Orange County Voices article. It is today, not in two to five years, that Orange County is generously offered the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, which presents a very viable solution.

Several proposals to change the boundary lines of Orange County's five supervisorial districts could dilute the clout of south County cities opposed to an El Toro airport. The maps are among a dozen options for new district lines to be unveiled Wednesday at a public hearing in Laguna Hills. A redistricting committee composed of representatives from each supervisorial office will make its recommendations this month to the Board of Supervisors.

Re "Not-My-Airport Syndrome," editorial, May 14: I agree with the two basic conclusions reached in this editorial: It is unwise to limit Orange County's aviation capacity, and there is capacity now at John Wayne to handle significantly more passengers than the supervisors say they want. In fact, John Wayne Airport can serve at least 14 million passengers annually without nighttime flights, runway extensions or a new terminal. The tax dollars invested in this airport should be fully exploited before a new airport is built.