3-16-05 The Airport Hearing-Regional Planning Commission. After a 4 hour hearing, the L A Department of Regional Planning Commission voted 3 to 1 to have their staff develop reasons for lapsing permit 1404 for the Agua Dulce Airport.
After the reasons are developed by their staff, the Commission will meet again to vote on the revocation of the permit. In discussion, the Commissioners clearly indicated the existing 1959 permit was so bad that no amount of patching could fix it. If the Commission votes for revocation, the airport would be allowed to apply for a new permit, which would now be subject for the first time to a CEQA environmental review. Even with revocation, the airport would be allowed to operate under a caretaker mode, under conditions established by the Planning Commission,, with public input, until a new permit is approved.
All of these decisions could be appealed first to the LA County Board of Supervisors and then to the courts.
People at the hearing testified in 3 basic groups. The first group wanted the permit terminated and would deal with any new permits in the hearing process. They argued that the existing permit was void and unenforceable and no amount of tinkering could fix it.
The second group, headed by Joann Swanson, who previously claimed the Civic Association approved her position of supporting the airport without the vote required by the bylaws. She claimed she received a great windfall for the community by convincing the airport to convert to a private airport but had that bubble burst when a Commissioner asked if the airport had always wanted to convert to a private airport. Clark, representing the airport stated: “Yes, it has always been Barry's intention to make the airport private”. All of the increases in turbo-props, and other issues conceded to the airport for expansion, by Swanson were in trade for nothing, but just a give away to the airport's expansionary drive.
The third group demanded that the airport be kept open to the public and have no limits whatsoever. They claimed that a letter from the CA Department of Aviation stated that neither the County nor the community had any control of the airport and there was nothing that the County or community could do to shut it down or limit its operations.
We also heard the continual statements from the Cangiano team that her survey showed that nearly 100% of the community supported the airport and the airport was there as a lifesaver for inexperienced pilots to land in case Los Angeles's airports were below minimums for visual flight rules. They also made the false claim that a restricted private airport could not be used in an emergency.
So it looks like all the airport's lobbying efforts and Swanson's attempt to give away the community's rights has been for naught and the permit will be terminated and followed by a new application for an airport permit, which will evaluate whether the airport meets current flight standards and if they can mitigate all negative environmental effects on the community.
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