The expansion of Los Angeles International Airport will likely be the single biggest project to confront L.A.’s next mayor. But so far, the six mayoral candidates appear reluctant to take up the issue, let alone cheerlead for the multibillion-dollar project.

None of the six announced major candidates has made LAX expansion a campaign issue, despite the expected release later this month of a major environmental document detailing the impacts of the proposed $8 billion to $12 billion expansion. And a Business Journal survey of the candidates last week shows relatively tepid support for the expansion plan now on the table. Two of the candidates expressed opposition to the plan unless major changes are made.

The expansion plan calls for the airport’s four runways to be lengthened and reconfigured, terminals to be added on the airfield’s west side, a ring road to be built around the airport and a host of other transportation improvements. The proposed expansion would enable LAX, which currently handles 63 million passengers a year, to increase its capacity to 89 million passengers a year.

“I am not an advocate for the expansion of LAX,” said state Controller and recently announced mayoral candidate Kathleen Connell. “An expansion of LAX without first pushing for expansion of our other airports in the region would not be a prudent course. And I am deeply concerned that an expansion would render the San Diego Freeway totally dysfunctional.”

Connell may be the most strident in her views, but she’s not alone. City Councilman Joel Wachs said he wants to see much more aggressive development of city-owned airfields at Palmdale and Ontario before he would jump on board the effort to expand LAX.

And to varying degrees, three of the other candidates Congressman Xavier Becerra, former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa and businessman, city commissioner and mayoral adviser Steve Soboroff all want to step back to see whether other airports should be developed or expanded before plunging ahead with the expansion.

Only City Attorney James Hahn said he would not seek a delay in the process by waiting for progress at other airfields.

“I’m all for a regional approach to our air traffic problem and would push hard for that as mayor, but we can’t afford a lengthy timeout to see if others get off the dime. The region is continuing to grow and we need to do whatever we can to make sure people will continue to travel into and out of L.A.”

The overall lack of enthusiasm from the mayoral candidates could spell trouble for the expansion effort, which enters a crucial phase later this month with the release of the long-awaited environmental impact report.

Critics of the project are expected to jump on the EIR to bolster their argument that the entire expansion should be abandoned in favor of other options. Some opponents will no doubt use it as a basis to sue airport and city officials to stop the project.

Mayor’s role

With the term of current Mayor Richard Riordan due to expire in seven months, it will be up to his successor to counter this criticism and the anticipated lawsuits by rallying support for the project. Otherwise, crucial momentum will be lost amid endless delays.

“This is the most important infrastructure project in all of Southern California for the next 10 years,” said Stephen Erie, a political scientist with the University of California, San Diego. “It will need real leadership from the mayor and the City Council to push it through. I don’t think you will see leadership emerge from these candidates until the votes are counted; and even after one of them is elected, it’s quite possible you won’t see it at all.”

And that has prompted concern from LAX expansion proponents.

“We need to have bold political leadership on this issue now and throughout this whole process,” said Ezuniel “Eze” Burts, president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. “This expansion is as critical to our region as the Alameda Corridor or the movement of water, and we can’t afford to have people waiting to see which way the wind blows to take some leadership.”

But Airport Commission president John Agoglia said he is not concerned about the apparent lack of support among the mayoral candidates for airport expansion at least for now.

“It’s only natural that at this stage the candidates are not cheerleading for the project,” Agoglia said. “They want to have all the facts in front of them, and those facts will start coming out with the release of the EIR later this month.”

But there may be a more political explanation for the lukewarm response from the mayoral candidates. There is little for the candidates to gain in strongly supporting an airport. Such a stance risks votes on the Westside, where the brunt of the traffic burden from an expanded airport would fall.

“The difficulty with airports is that the benefits are dispersed over a large region, while the costs are concentrated,” Erie said. “That’s a real incentive for opponents to vote against anyone supporting a new or expanded airport.”

Acknowledging opposition

Indeed, all of the mayoral candidates acknowledged the intense opposition to the expansion plan in El Segundo, Westchester and other communities near the airport. And they all said they want to see more extensive mitigation of the traffic, noise, pollution and other impacts that the expansion would bring than has been proposed so far.

“It’s very important that all of the impacts of this airport expansion on traffic, noise and pollution be addressed up front,” Villaraigosa said. “City officials have a long trail of not keeping their commitments to communities. That has got to change before I can support this project.”

But the candidates raised other concerns as well. Connell said she is “deeply concerned” about how the expansion would be financed. Part of the $8 billion to $12 billion cost would come directly out of the national Airport Trust Fund, which is built up from contributions from airlines and earmarked for airport improvement projects. But city officials would probably have to raise landing fees and seek bond financing to cover the rest.

“There is a real question about whether revenues from the airport will pay off the debt service, questions that haven’t been answered yet,” Connell said. “Officials in L.A. seem all too ready to commit themselves to ventures without secure financing. And this city is already in perilous financial straits with the prospect of Rampart liabilities, let alone the possibility of secession of the San Fernando Valley or other communities.”

Becerra also had financial concerns, but of a different nature. He said he wants to make sure the environmental documents were extremely thorough.

“Otherwise, we risk getting ourselves into a Belmont situation, where we spend lots of money to start construction only to find that we’ve made major mistakes,” he said, referring to the Los Angeles Unified School District’s $170 million Belmont Learning Center fiasco.

And Wachs said he is concerned that airport officials won’t allow enough time for all the affected parties to comment on the massive EIR due out in the next few weeks.

“I’m going to ask for a minimum six-month circulation and comment period for the EIR,” Wachs said. “If we short-circuit this process now, on the front end, we will pay for it in court on the back end.”