Long Beach : Expansion for C-17 Backed

Plans by Douglas Aircraft Co. to make room for production of C-17 military transport planes received preliminary approval from the city’s Planning Commission last week. Commissioners recommended that the City Council rezone Douglas’ airport-area property to allow unlimited building heights and approved an environmental report that projects an additional 31,040 vehicle trips per day in and out of the area.

Citing an overriding consideration of increased employment opportunities, commissioners approved the environmental report unanimously, even though it warned that a “significant adverse impact” on traffic circulation would result from expansion. Douglas officials said they will need an additional 6,747 workers by 1991 to build the C-17.

Lakewood homeowners north of the airport have formed a committee to protest the project. They say that additional workers will aggravate traffic and parking problems in their neighborhoods, and that one of the three major building projects proposed by Douglas will be an eyesore. Douglas plans to build a 77-foot-high parts processing building near the southwest corner of Lakewood Boulevard and Carson Street, across from 54 single-family homes.

To accommodate homeowners, Douglas Aircraft agreed to reduce the building’s height by 15 feet, to 77 feet. The building it will replace was 45 feet high and 200,000 square feet smaller.

Citizen committee spokesman Russell Godin, a real estate broker, said homeowners will protest the project before the Long Beach City Council, which will consider the zoning change as early as April 15.

Altogether, the project is expected to add 1.78-million square feet to the 6.37-million-square-foot plant. The Planning Commission will review site plans for each building.