1-18-05 The Agua Dulce Airpark is negotiating with the wrong people and in bad faith. We have just received a copy from the California Pilots Association website of the plea for help posted by Mary Johnson, the Agua Dulce Airport Manager, on January 9, 2005 asking aviators to help keep the airport open as a general aviation airport.
In fact, the secret negotiations between the self-appointed or elected through highly questionable means “representatives” were told by Aaron Clark in all three versions of a document entitled “Discussion of Issues and Proposed Corrective Conditions Related to Modifications of Special Permit 1404” in paragraph 2 that the Airpark is to be converted to a restricted private use airport.
As Max Headroom said: the way you tell if an airport proponent is lying is when their lips move.
No one has authorized the Agua Dulce Town Council to negotiate on behalf of the residents of Agua Dulce, particularly when this group is apparently negotiating vast increases above the absolute threshold set in Special Permit # 1404, which by law must be lapsed under conditions 15 and 16. Also, no one in Acton authorized them to move the stunt and movie flying to Acton.
A new group, the Concerned Citizens of Agua Dulce (CCAD) blew the whistle on the secret negotiations and are to be commended for their civic-minded position.
The general public has no idea of these secret negotiations. The airport who may have provided proposed conditions for the Staff Report made sure the public did not have a copy. The airport is attempting to co-opt the Civic Association and the Agua Dulce Town Council, who are now counting votes that someone paid $5.00 each for, based on public testimony.
According to the Staff Report only CCAD and the Civic Association were allowed by Regional Planning (RPC) to have their comment letters and views included in the Staff Report. The Overall-Brink position paper, which demanded lapsing of the Permit # 1404 was not included.
As to the hearing procedure, Supervisor Antonovich, in his motion, stated “The hearing shall be conducted at a location and time convenient to residents and Regional Planning Staff…”. This clearly shows the intent of the Supervisor to limit testimony to those affected by the airport. The disingenuous effort by the airport to collect thousands of support letters from non-residents via false and misleading information to bias the hearing is meaningless. The bona-fide residents must have priority in speaking and the commission must cut off repetitive non-resident comments.
If the Commission does not accept the draft motion by RPC to simply close the airport because of its violations of County and other laws and invoke conditions 15 and 16, then in the alternative, because of the secret negotiations and their 25 pages of modifications to Permit # 1404, the hearing must be continued to allow public comment on these proposed new conditions which in fact enlarge both the scope and activity of the airport and under CEQA, would require a full EIR, which they are trying to bypass.
The bottom line is that any airport is an inappropriate use in the community of Agua Dulce. There is no demonstrated public need for an airport that over-rides the incredible loss of lifestyle and property values for the community, except for the greed of the airport operators. In fact, condition 2 of the secret negotiations require “the following reasonable concessions...” which then begins a multi-page list of increased intensity activities such as:
1. Condo-izing the hangers for private sale, a vast increase in the number and size of hangars to 164,000 square feet total.
2. Guarantees that the County will permit the unsafe 4th of July fireworks and Country Music Festival events for an unlimited number of outsiders overriding community protests.
3. It would also allow the establishment of a virtual movie studio including dedicated paved areas and buildings and allow plane to plane filming and formation flying (air acrobatics) to be filmed over Acton but not Agua Dulce, with of course, no one in Acton even knowing about this concession or able to comment on it.
4. It would allow helicopter operations which were never authorized by Permit # 1404, but by a private letter issued without a public hearing as a modification of Permit # 1404, which claims that “helicopters are propeller driven aircraft”. Maybe they are, if you are thinking of a Time for Beany helicopter hat, but a thorough search of the FAA regulations indicates that propeller driven aircraft are totally different from rotary wing aircraft (helicopters). The chance of the County prevailing in this argument in court is zero.
5. It authorizes them to sell memberships in a private recreational club in violation of current zoning and the Master Plan.
6. It allows the illegally, and without permit, paved Blue Line Stream to remain paved violating state law.
7. And it contains a provision prohibiting Regional Planning or the County from ever interfering with the continued operation of the airport.
How arrogant to assume the airport can supersede the authority of Regional Planning and Public Works?