A Troubling Flight Plan : Torrance Airport Takes Flak for Renovation Project That Is Forcing Older Businesses Out

Roger Keeney is an old-timer at Torrance Municipal Airport.

A 78-year-old pilot and businessman, Keeney has operated Acme Aircraft Co. at the airport since 1945. In its early years the company occupied 2 1/2 acres, employed about 50 workers and provided maintenance and fuel service for dozens of aircraft each week.

But time and the city’s redevelopment plans for the airport have closed in on Keeney.

Now he works by himself out of a small, single-story, white stucco building hidden within a row of new city-built hangars. The only service he offers is weighing planes so that pilots can meet federal certification standards.

When Keeney’s lease on his original site expired several years ago, the city built hangars on most of that land and sold Keeney a five-year lease to the tiny lot from which he now works.

Told to Move

About a year and a half ago, his lease to that lot expired, and the city told him to move out to make room for two more city hangars.

The hangars--72 of which already have been built--are part of the city’s airport redevelopment project, which also will include a 9,681-square-foot General Aviation Center and two or three large aviation-related businesses.

In order to stay at the airport, the city told Keeney he must either build himself a new facility or incorporate his operations with another airport business.

But Keeney says he can’t afford to relocate or build a new facility.

He said many of his friends have told him to give up his business and retire. But he said he knows no other life outside of the airport.

“What the hell am I going to do, pull the cork?” he said, referring to retirement. “What am I going to do, go home and mow the lawn?”

The redevelopment project that is forcing Keeney out of businesses is at the center of a debate between city officials and some business operators at the airport.

Representatives of the city say the project will breathe new life into the airport and draw aviation-related companies to build businesses there.

Brian Raber, the airport’s program specialist, said the city does not want to run Keeney and other airport companies out of business. But most of the airport’s buildings are dilapidated, he said, and if airport business owners are unable to renovate or build facilities, the city will lease their land to a company that will.

“We’ve got to get rid of the old stuff and put up the new stuff. . . . The whole intention is to renovate the airport,” he said.

Business Owners Pessimistic

But several business owners at the airport are pessimistic about the project, which they say will drive away longtime operators who cannot afford new facilities but do little to attract new businesses.

“It’s not going to do a damn bit of difference,” said Bob Hamilton, owner of G & S Industries, an aircraft repair shop he has operated at the airport for 15 years.

Hamilton and some other airport business owners say the airport will continue to struggle because the city has created a climate that discourages pilots from using the Torrance facility.

As examples, they cite the city’s restrictions on aircraft noise, its ban on the sale of jet fuel and limits on the number of tie-down spaces.

Raber said the city has implemented such restrictions in order to curtail the noise that spills into adjoining neighborhoods, and he said city officials believe it is possible to have a viable airport and continue to enforce such noise-limiting restrictions.

Last month, however, the project met with disappointment when only one firm responded after the city contacted dozens of aviation companies throughout Southern California, asking them to submit proposals for constructing new aviation-related businesses at the airport.

Albert Ng, the assistant city manager, said the city has since extended the deadline indefinitely and sought more proposals.

‘Needs a Face Lift’

Ng said he thinks it has been difficult to attract proposals because “the airport needs a face lift.” Many buildings at the airport were built during World War II and are now dilapidated, he said.

But Hamilton contends that the city’s own short-term lease policies have helped to foster that dilapidation. Without the security of longer leases, he said, business owners have no incentive to maintain or modernize their facilities.

Ng said that almost all businesses at the airport are on a month-to-month lease because the city wants to be able to take over a lease on short notice to make room for a new business.

Despite the lack of bids, Ng said the city is still optimistic about the project, but Hamilton said he believes applicants may be discouraged by the city’s requirements.

For example, Hamilton said he did not submit a proposal to build a new facility at the airport because he could not afford to pay both the nonrefundable $25,000 deposit and the cost of constructing a new building.

Not Unusual

Ng said the deposit, which would be returned after a lease is signed, is required to make sure the developer goes through with its plans. He said such a deposit is not unusual for redevelopment projects in Torrance and elsewhere.

Mickey Bodell, manager and part-owner of Nagel Aircraft Co., an aircraft parts supplier, said that his company is going out of business this month because its 30-year lease expired in June and he also could not afford to build new a facility. He said another factor in his decision was the city’s insistence on limiting him to a one-year renewal on his lease.

Bodell said that would make it difficult for him to maintain the huge inventory his shop requires. He said that when he buys an aircraft for salvage, it takes at least two years before he sees a profit from selling the parts.

“In our type of business you just can’t run for one year at a time,” he said.

Bodell said that he will auction off his inventory this weekend and prepare for retirement.

Larry Wilcox, a Torrance homeowner and pilot for 20 years, agrees that the airport needs renovations. But he said that if city officials continue limiting airport operations, they should consider giving airport businesses financial aid to help them modernize their buildings or build new facilities.

The airport’s businesses “can’t afford to maintain their buildings, pay rent and renovate,” he said. “The city is going to have to make some considerations.”

15 Companies

But Raber said the city does not have the money to help airport businesses build new facilities. He said each company must pay for its own maintenance and renovation cost. “That’s just part of business,” he said.

There are 15 companies doing business at Torrance airport. Acme Aircraft Co. and Nagel Aircraft Co. are the only companies going out of business to make way for the redevelopment project, Raber said.

As part of the project, the city will build a new $1.5-million General Aviation Center next to the airport control tower. It will house the airport’s administration offices, operations center, a flight planning office, a noise monitoring center, a pilot’s lounge and a community meeting room.

The city has already spent about $1.5 million for the hangars and is renting them out for $300, $400 and $1,000 a month, depending on their size. Over the next 30 years the city expects to make about $7 million from the hangars.

Funding for the hangars and the general aviation center--which should be completed within two years--is coming from the airport budget and the sale of a bond, city officials said.

Each of the new aviation-related businesses will cost its owner between $1.5 million and $2 million to build. They will be located on a 10-acre vacant parcel just west of the airport control tower.

Cure for Problems

Although city officials are pitching the redevelopment project as a cure for many of the airport’s problems, nearby residents, pilots and business owners at the airport still express concern about the airport’s finances.

The airport, which was once a World War II flight training center for the Army Air Corps, totals about 500 acres. About 140 acres are leased for non-aeronautical uses, such as shopping centers and auto dealerships.

Since 1979, the aeronautical operations of the airport have lost a total of about $2.5 million, according to past city budget reports. However, revenues from commercial leases regularly put the total airport budget in the black.

There has been a “dramatic reduction” in the number of flights at the airport, said Raber, who attributes most of the reduction to a decline in general aviation throughout the country.

In 1976, when the airport was at its busiest, there were about 439,000 departures and landings. Last year, there were about 249,000, he said.

Noise Control

However, Raber acknowledged that the city also limits operations at the airport as a means of controlling noise. He said the airport has enough tie-down space for about 1,050 airplanes, but the city has limited that number to 825, by allowing some tie-downs to remain unused. Depending on the size of the aircraft, the airport receives between $80 and $125 per month for a tie-down.

Eli Alexander, manager of ALEXAIR, which rents and services helicopters at the airport, said he thinks the airport would attract more businesses if the city eased up on its noise and aircraft restrictions.

Alexander said that increasing the number of airplanes at the airport will not necessarily increase noise because many pilots only fly once or twice a year.

“They are like yachts,” he said. “People won’t use them every day.”

According to Raber, the airport has a ban on 39 types of aircraft--mostly older jets that violate the airport’s noise limits. No other airport in the area, including the Long Beach, Hawthorne and Santa Monica municipal airports, has such a ban, he said.

“I guess we are kind of unique,” he said.

Airport Curfew

In 1977, the city passed an ordinance that limits aircraft noise to 82 decibels--equivalent to the sound of a vacuum cleaner operating in a closed room.

The airport also has a curfew between 11 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. Only emergency flights and pilots with exemptions can fly in and out of the airport during those hours.

Although airport business operators claim that Torrance’s noise restrictions are the most drastic in the area, Raber said it is difficult to compare the noise restrictions at Torrance with those at other airports.

He said different airports limit noise in different ways. Some airports are larger and farther away from populated areas and therefore have fewer restrictions, he said. “It’s like comparing apples and oranges,” he said.

At Santa Monica Airport, where residents have often complained about noise, airport Director Hank Dittmar said the maximum allowable noise level is 95 decibels. Santa Monica also has a list of 22 restricted aircraft that are allowed to operate there only if pilots can demonstrate that they can land or take off without violating the noise limit, Dittmar said.

Santa Monica also enforces a ban on takeoffs and landings after 11 p.m. and before 7 p.m., he said.

No Limits, Bans

By contrast, Hawthorne Municipal Airport has no noise limits and no banned aircraft, according to Robert Trimborn, the airport’s administrator. He said the city only asks that pilots not practice takeoffs and landings after 10 p.m. and before 7 a.m.

The city gets very few noise complaints from residents, he said, and most pilots voluntarily try to limit airport noise.

Despite the concerns of business owners at the Torrance airport, Raber said city officials are unlikely to ease restrictions on noise and operations there.

That is bad news for Keeney, who is reluctantly packing his equipment and preparing to move out of the airport.

Keeney mourns having to leave his friends and the life he has known for 44 years.

“I’m 78 years old,” he said. “I’m not going to be here forever. . . . I just want to hang on a little longer.”