Modified LAX Plan on Hahn’s Radar?

When Mayor James K. Hahn unveiled his plan for a massive modernization of Los Angeles International Airport in the wake of 9/11, he promised reconfigured runways and new terminals and security that would keep travelers safe from terrorists.

Two and half years later, however, the plan has come under relentless criticism from surrounding communities, major airlines and City Council members. And now, its two leading champions have left Hahn’s administration amid criminal probes into the awarding of airport contracts.

Many city leaders, including council members poised to consider the $9-billion proposal, are saying that Hahn’s plan -- with its vast new passenger check-in terminal -- is dead on arrival. They argue that the mayor must change his approach, reach out to opponents and compromise.

Until recently, Hahn gave few indications he would.

But with the resignations of Airport Commission President Ted Stein on Tuesday and Deputy Mayor Troy Edwards two weeks ago, Hahn appears to be signaling that he is willing to consider changes to the project, according to elected officials and community leaders.

That could mean that the world’s fifth-busiest airport will get a fraction of the makeover Hahn proposed in 2001, at perhaps a third of the cost, and leave LAX’s existing terminals mostly the way they are today.

It also would mean that Hahn, who faces a potentially tough reelection fight next year, would avoid defeat on a multibillion-dollar public works project that had been a centerpiece of his administration.

“My sense is that the old plan doesn’t have much life left in it,” said Councilman Eric Garcetti. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw the council and mayor collaborating to come up with a new plan ... that makes much better sense for the community and for safety.”

Hahn announced his plans for the LAX modernization with fanfare in July 2002 at a news conference on the roof of an LAX parking garage, flanked by business leaders and residents who he hoped would embrace his vision.

His plan was a major departure from that of his predecessor, Richard Riordan, who envisioned vastly increasing LAX’s passenger capacity. Riordan’s idea had run into opposition from nearby cities that feared more jet noise, traffic and pollution.

In its place, Hahn sketched out a plan to change the way travelers access LAX that he said would protect passengers while holding down growth to mollify neighborhoods ringing LAX.

Private vehicles would be banned from the central terminal area and routed to a new passenger check-in center near the San Diego Freeway in Westchester. An elevated people-mover would connect the center to terminals, a new transit center near the Century Freeway and a consolidated rental car facility.

Hahn proposed demolishing Terminals 1, 2 and 3, knocking down the parking garages in the middle of the horseshoe-shaped roadway and in their place build a central terminal complex.

And the mayor said he would move the airport’s two sets of parallel runways farther apart to decrease the number of near collisions between airplanes.

“I have worked to develop a new airport configuration, with the emphasis on building an airport that is functional, efficient, safe and secure,” Hahn announced in 2002. “We are delivering on those promises.”

But Hahn’s plan ran into fierce opposition almost from the day the mayor unveiled it.

Neighbors complained that the check-in facility would move traffic and pollution into their community. Airlines and business groups said the plan would waste $9 billion on a project that would not significantly increase LAX’s passenger capacity. City leaders also questioned the costs. And the cause was undermined further by a Rand Corp. study that concluded that Hahn’s improvements would actually make travelers more vulnerable to terrorism by concentrating them in the check-in center.

The mayor’s problems intensified when he handed responsibility for advancing the project to Airport Commission President Stein and Deputy Mayor Edwards. Many of the city and community leaders the mayor needed to pass his plan said they thought that Stein and Edward never attempted to take their opinions seriously.

Community members, business groups and airlines said they were shut out of discussions when they had expressed concerns about the plan. City Council members, who would have to approve it, complained that they couldn’t get the mayor’s office to talk to them.

“What should have been an inclusionary process that should have been ongoing for the last 18 months instead has been a void,” said Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, whose district includes LAX and neighboring communities.

Even the mayor’s allies in organized labor and the business community began calling on Hahn to dismiss his controversial lieutenants and begin negotiating with the plan’s opponents.

“There is nowhere close to eight votes on this proposal as we speak,” said Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, one of several council members who have been warning Hahn for weeks that his plan is facing defeat because it can’t win a council majority.

With the warnings intensifying, Hahn finally moved, city and community leaders said.

Edwards announced his resignation two weeks ago and was replaced by a respected City Hall veteran. Stein resigned Tuesday.

Both men have been linked to federal and local investigations into allegations that airport contractors received work in exchange for political contributions. They deny any wrongdoing and insist that they stepped down voluntarily.

In the wake of the shakeup, City Council President Alex Padilla said the mayor signaled this week for the first time that he is open to a possible compromise. “I asked, ‘Are you still going to hold hard and fast to [the proposal] or is there finally room for discussion?’ ” Padilla said. “I welcomed his response, which was ‘Yes, there is room for discussion.’ ”

Other council members and community groups said they were still awaiting a call from the mayor’s office.

But many city leaders and others praised Hahn for the change of personnel.

“The airlines hope that there’s a renewed emphasis on trying to reach a compromise that’s acceptable to all stakeholders,” said airline consultant Kelley Brown, echoing hopeful words from many of the mayor’s opponents.

For his part, Hahn said only that he is rallying support. “We’re going to continue to work on this, to build consensus,” he said this week.

What a compromise plan will look like remains unclear.

But several leading players said that it would figure to be, at least in the short term, a much less ambitious, less costly modernization.

Plans being pushed by the airline industry and other business groups would spend no more than $3 billion to remodel the Tom Bradley International Terminal, expand a system of FlyAway bus centers, build a consolidated rental car facility and move a southern runway closer to El Segundo to decrease near misses between aircraft.

Miscikowski is drafting her own scaled-down alternative, which she plans to release in the next three weeks. And the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce is calling for a more incremental approach.

Scrapped, or at least deferred, would be the proposed remote check-in facility in Westchester. Gone too would be the plans to demolish Terminals 1, 2 and 3 and to tear down the airport’s existing parking garages.

But that, said many observers, may actually deliver the consensus Hahn has struggled for two years to achieve.

“It’s in everyone’s interest to come together on a plan that modernizes the airport,” said George Kieffer, chairman of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.