FAA Approval Nears, LAX Hurdles Remain

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Despite a flurry of legal challenges and a hotly contested mayor’s race, the $11 billion overhaul of Los Angeles International Airport could break ground as early as this fall.


The Federal Aviation Administration is expected to approve Mayor James Hahn’s plan this month, which would give airport officials the final regulatory green light that would allow construction to begin.


“We’re waiting for a record of decision from the FAA to really promulgate and consummate the project,” said City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who helped draft the revised plan.


Still, final regulatory approval does not necessarily mean an end to haggling over the project. Plenty of pending lawsuits and other challenges may yet thwart the plan’s progress.


Even Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the FAA, said that while the agency expects to announce its decision this month, approval does not mean the plan will progress smoothly. “The federal record of decision does not constitute implementation of the project,” she said. “The final decision to go ahead fundamentally is a local decision.”


The revised plan before the FAA has essentially the same elements of Hahn’s original LAX Master Plan. Under the revised version, however, only a handful of the original aspects of the project would be green-lighted this year. Those include the consolidated rental car facility, reconfiguration of the southern runways and an inter-modal transportation center that connects passengers from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Green Line to a tram-like “people mover.”


More controversial elements of Hahn’s initial plan, such as a remote check-in facility at Manchester Square, the tearing down of Terminals 1, 2 and 3 and the closing off of the main parking garages, would be set aside for further environmental reviews and approvals.


Brown said several state environmental laws are more stringent than federal laws, and that may have an impact on the FAA’s analysis. Environmental lawsuits by the city of El Segundo and the County of Los Angeles may result in court injunctions that could stop construction.


In addition, El Segundo and the county have appealed to the county’s airport land use commission, seeking a ruling that the entire LAX Master Plan is inconsistent with the state’s Aeronautics Act, among other claims, said Mark Child, principal regional planning assistant for the Board of Supervisors. Both appeals are scheduled to be heard on March 30.


What impact a negative decision from that body would have is unclear.


Last fall, a ruling by the same commission forced the City Council to come up with 10 votes, rather than a simple majority, to approve the airport plan. The Council approved the plan by a 12-to-3 vote.


Airport and city officials have since argued that the commission no longer has legal standing to interfere with the airport’s progress. Miscikowski dismissed the impact of the commission’s upcoming decision. “Appeals aren’t appropriate,” she said. “But all sides have said, ‘leave no stone unturned on legal issues.'”



Other uncertainties


Changing political winds in the next few months may slow progress of the plan as well, if new city officials opt to re-study some of the projects. Both candidates seeking to succeed Miscikowski, whose council term ends June 30, have spoken out against parts of the plan, and City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, who faces Hahn in a May runoff election, cast one of the three votes in opposition in December.


None has spoken out against the initial phases of the project, however.


If elected, Miscikowski said, Villaraigosa “could say, ‘Scrap everything and start over.’ But the consequences are significant in terms of setting the city back quite a ways.”


Meantime, as many as 150 people, including representatives from the airlines that must pay the lion’s share of the $11 billion price tag, attended a stakeholder committee meeting on Feb. 3. The plan calls for the stakeholder group to review each aspect of the project. Bob Gilbert, who heads the stakeholder committee as an appointee of the Board of Airport Commissioners, said the purpose of that first meeting was to brief the public on how the committee works.


“The specific plan mandates that the community be provided with a dedicated source of information about the implementation of the LAX Master Plan,” said Gilbert, vice president for aviation services at URS Corp., a long-time consultant on the plan.


The first aspect of the reconstruction and the first to be taken up by the committee is the reconfiguration of the southern runways. Studies on the project already have been conducted by HNTB Ltd., now a subcontractor on the primary design contract for the entire LAX Master Plan. Last year, DMJM was awarded the primary contract, estimated at $1 million to $2 million per month.


No work can be undertaken until after the FAA approval is granted. The first draft of a project-specific environmental impact report on the runway shift is expected to be delivered in several months, well after the FAA’s anticipated approval of the plan.

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