Airport Panel Approves Development Blueprint for Property Near LAX

After years of planning and public hearings, the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners approved a development blueprint Wednesday for 350 acres just north of Los Angeles International Airport.

Approval of the development guidelines has been eagerly awaited by the Westchester business community, which contends that the uncertainty over how the land would be developed has hampered efforts to revitalize the community’s downtown area.

The guidelines envision a “low-rise, suburban office and research park” on the acreage closest to homes that still exist in the area. The land closest to Westchester’s business area will be developed with office buildings, hotels and some retail outlets and restaurants. The Westchester Golf Course, which covers part of the property, would be redesigned.

“I think it is a well-planned project,” said Jerry Epstein, the airport commissioner who has worked most closely on the guidelines. “The impact it will have on Sepulveda Boulevard in Westchester is going to be tremendous. The land values are going to go crazy.”

Epstein praised the development’s existing zoning, which calls for low-density construction. The average density will be about one-third the level permissible under Proposition U, the slow-growth measure passed by local voters in 1986, according to airport officials.

The development hinges on the construction of a $35-million, four-lane highway that the Department of Airports will build. The 2.3-mile highway will extend the entire length of the development from Sepulveda Eastway to Pershing Drive.

Engineers are drawing plans for the highway and could complete them by summer, said Bill Schoenfeld, deputy executive director of the Department of Airports. Schoenfeld predicted that it could be two years before any construction begins, and it could take five years or longer to complete the development.

The land has stood vacant for more than a decade, ever since the Department of Airports finished acquiring the 2,834 homes there, which were severely impacted by jet noise. Under city planning regulations, the guidelines had to be approved before anything could be built on the land.

Stung by the controversy created when homes were condemned, the department has moved slowly to develop the land, which is next to Los Angeles International’s two, northernmost runways. Zoning and environmental approvals to build a commercial development on the property were granted four years ago.

Some residents, who had become accustomed to open space, would rather nothing be built there. They have said they fear any commercial development would bring increased traffic and air pollution problems.

But others, particularly Westchester business people, have pushed the department to develop a plan for the property. Howard Drollinger, a Westchester developer, estimates he has attended 100 meetings in recent years--some sponsored by the department, others by community groups--to discuss how the property should be developed.

Drollinger and others contend that Westchester’s central business district has never fully recovered since the homes were razed and people moved out of the area. Moreover, they contend the new investment in the area has been stymied because no one was certain what type of development might eventually be earmarked for the land.

“In some ways, (the airport) has paid lip service to this project, and it really holds the whole community hostage,” said Terry Marcellus, an attorney who lives near the property.