New Ideas About Expanding LAX Take Off Quickly

By AMANDA BRONSTAD

Staff Reporter

The shakeup in Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn’s administration, capped last week by the resignation of Airport Commission President Ted Stein, has left the mayor’s $9 billion LAX overhaul in shambles and suddenly opened the field to alternative proposals for modernizing the facility.

By late last week, it was generally believed that Hahn’s much-criticized plan had virtually no chance of getting passed by the City Council later this year. But finding an alternative that passes muster among a disparate group of elected officials, community and business groups, as well as the airlines, could be a daunting prospect.

Complicating matters is a timetable set in motion for the Hahn proposal that some on the council do not want to scrap entirely, for fear that yet another burdensome planning and environmental review would delay improvements at Los Angeles International Airport even further.

“The whole process is under investigation,” said City Councilwoman Miscikowski, a critic of Hahn’s plan who held meetings last week about an alternative.

Having Stein resign, she said, “allows us to get back on track. It’s going to have a liberating impact on people and ideas and concepts. I know there are people who are comfortable to talk to me who have not been in the past, for fear of the people in control over there.”

Stein’s departure comes after the resignation of Deputy Mayor Troy Edwards, who had been Hahn’s liaison on airport matters and played a key role in lobbying for support of the modernization plan. While Stein and Edwards had long been lightning rods for criticism over the LAX overhaul, they had been under increasing fire in recent weeks in connection with investigations by the U.S. Attorney and L.A. County District Attorney over contracting practices at the airport. Both Stein and Edwards have denied wrongdoing.

Focus on Master Plan

George Kieffer, a partner at Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP and chairman of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce’s executive committee, which last week recommended the LAX Master Plan with certain conditions, said the issues surrounding Stein had become a “distraction.”

“Whether or not one thinks Ted Stein did anything wrong, I think it’s beside the point,” Kieffer said. “As he pointed out, he was becoming the issue and he didn’t want that to be the case. I think this helps focus attention away from Ted and those issues and back onto the Master Plan.”

Miscikowski, a former council planning aide, declined to provide details about her ideas, including whether they even involves changes to the airport plan itself. She plans to make a formal announcement later this month. “It will be a way to get out of the Master Plan constraints put before us,” she said.

One immediate alternative is a $3 billion plan, first proposed last fall. This plan eliminates the ambitious construction of a remote baggage and passenger screening station at the site of the Manchester Square residential community and the demolition of Terminals 1, 2 and 3 on the northern end of LAX. The demolition was foreseen as a way to make room for a safety taxiway.

The plan was drafted by the Los Angeles Airline Airport Affairs Committee, a coalition of 80 carriers, and the Alliance for a Regional Solution to Airport Congestion, a group of community organizations and elected officials from localities near the airport.

“Now that Ted Stein has resigned and Troy Edwards has resigned, it opens the door for us to have legitimate discussions,” said Denny Schneider, a vice president of the alliance.

Hahn, who had refused to budge on several aspects of the LAX Master Plan, was working last week “to build a consensus,” said the mayor’s spokeswoman, Julie Wong.

“He does not want to lose momentum we’ve gained so far on developing ideas to make our airport safer and more secure,” she said.

Hahn’s willingness to compromise comes amid a growing consensus that the City Council will not approve the current LAX Master Plan.

“If the mayor doesn’t significantly modify, or is unwilling to budge on his plan, I’m not optimistic on the outcome,” said City Council President Alex Padilla. “If that’s what the Airport Commission voted to approve and sent to the Council for consideration, I wouldn’t be optimistic.”

At the end of the month, the Airport Commission is scheduled to release a revised environmental impact report on the Master Plan. The release of the EIR triggers five public hearings and consideration by the L.A. County Airport Land Use Commission. Subject to approval are entitlements, tract maps, planning and land use issues, zone changes and plan amendments. The Council makes the final vote on the plan Sept. 14.

Several council members have yet to take a position on the Master Plan. Four, including Miscikowski and Padilla, have spoken publicly against Hahn’s plan.

Padilla said multiple options still exist for the council to tweak or modify the plan in the coming months, even after the EIR is released. “If we can’t get a plan approved this year, we will have missed a golden opportunity and failed an important responsibility,” he said.

But Schneider expressed concerns about whether an approved plan would be based on a completely new EIR or the revised one, which uses out-dated statistical data.

“It would behoove us to take the high road and do it right the first time,” Schneider said. “We’re spending over $100 million working on a plan, but there’s no reason to jump off a cliff just because we’ve spent that money. We need an educated and intelligent decision.”

Kieffer said scrapping the EIR would be a waste of money.

“We can’t go through another process where we reject the entire plan and start over again,” Kieffer said. “We think we can still preserve options in the future to abandon Manchester Square, for instance, if in the future that appears to be the right thing to do.”

Padilla said the council can still make changes to Hahn’s plan after the EIR is released.

LAX also faces pressures from various governmental agencies to accommodate larger security screening machines for passengers and baggage, create centerline taxiways for safety purposes and expand runways for Airbus A380 super jumbo jets, which is expected to become the industry standard in the next few years.

Political backdrop

With so many obstacles, the possibility exists that no plan will be approved, said El Segundo Mayor Mike Gordon, who recently spoke out against Hahn’s plan.

“My best hope is Mayor Hahn will step forward, provide leadership, address concerns and get a plan approved,” he said. “If not, we’re headed to having no plan and having to start this whole process all over again, which would be a defeat for Mayor Hahn and the city of L.A.”

Hahn’s proposal is the fourth offered during the last decade for renovating LAX. The first, Plan A, called for building another runway on the north side of the airport; Plan B featured an additional runway on the south side; and Plan C, developed under former Mayor Richard Riordan, included a ring road connecting a new terminal on the airport’s west side with the San Diego (405) Freeway and extend the Metro Green Line into LAX. Leaving LAX unaltered is another option.

Plans A, B and C were studied but have been taken off the table.

Hahn, who has already collected a $1.3 million war chest for his re-election next year, has made the Master Plan a key focus of his office since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Putting the emphasis largely on security concerns, he announced his proposal with considerable fanfare, even though the $9 billion price tag and the massive scale of the overhaul drew lukewarm support. Should Hahn’s plan go down, it’s certain to be an issue in next year’s mayoral race.

Stein, meanwhile, remained steadfast about the plan to the very end.

In an April 6 statement regarding his decision to resign, he denied allegations that a lobbyist, on his behalf, had asked officials at URS Corp. to give political donations in exchange for a lucrative LAX Master Plan contract. Still, he acknowledged the allegations had impacted plans for the airport.

“Getting the Master Plan implemented with all deliberate speed, and despite political opposition, has been my top priority,” Stein said in the statement.