Air Museum Idea Wins Praise but No Clearance for Takeoff

Over the past decade, angry exchanges between noise-protesting homeowners and Van Nuys Airport officials have arisen at many a public meeting. Just last month, homeowners stormed out of a meeting of an airport citizens advisory group that had been formed to cool passions.

Into this bitter cross-fire comes a rare note of harmony.

Longtime antagonists unexpectedly find themselves in concert over a plan to build an aerospace museum and park on airport land being vacated by the Air National Guard at the airport, just east of Balboa Boulevard and south of Roscoe Boulevard.

But the money involved may ground the proposal. The land needed is worth large sums in leases to the city of Los Angeles, which owns the airport.

A consultant hired by the city Board of Airport Commissioners is investigating possible uses for the 62-acre Air National Guard property, plus 30 additional adjacent acres on which leases are up for renewal. Thus far, the consulting firm has presented five options, in which between two and 33 acres are devoted to the museum and park.

Offices, Industry

Of the remaining acreage, the proposals call for only 16 acres to be leased to aviation-related business, with the remainder of the land to be committed to office buildings, stores and light industry.

That brings out support from the noise-protest groups, delighted that the land might not be used to increase the number of planes at the airport.

“I don’t know any homeowner group that isn’t in favor of it,” said Don Schultz, president of Ban Airport Noise and a leading noise protester. “It’s the best idea that has come up in some time, maybe ever, for the airport.”

Most owners of the businesses that lease property at the general aviation airport also “feel it’s a pretty good idea,” said Clay Lacy, chief proponent of the museum plan and operator of an aircraft charter service at the airfield.

Several Los Angeles City Council members also have reacted favorably to the proposal to build the museum.

Proposal Praised

The proposal has been praised as imaginative by several members of the Board of Airport Commissioners, who oversee Los Angeles International, Ontario, Palmdale and Van Nuys airports.

Despite the praise, the museum, which would display old and new airplanes, is a long way from being cleared for takeoff.

In fact, once the cost-conscious commission, made up of members appointed by the mayor, has a close look at the plan, the harmony it brought to airport interests may not be enough to keep it alive.

In an interview, Commissioner Samuel Greenberg called the museum “a very interesting idea.” But when he was informed that airport staff planners had estimated that 20 acres proposed for the museum would, if leased to commercial users, produce about $1 million a year for Los Angeles tax coffers, Greenberg backed away.

“I don’t think we can justify anything of that magnitude,” he said. “We have to think about making some money out there for the taxpayers.”

Commission President Jerry B. Epstein said the museum may fit in with the commission’s dual mission of “serving the city’s aviation needs and also serving the needs of the community surrounding the airport.

“I don’t think every decision we make should be based on how much money we can get out of it,” he said. He added, “On the other hand, I see the airport as a corporation, and we are the directors who represent the stockholders, who are the taxpayers.”

Common Sense

Determining where the drive for profit should give way to community benefit is “just common sense,” he said. “It’s not a point you can spell out in advance.”

A factor that will probably affect the museum decision is the expiration of contracts in 1992 under which excess revenue from Department of Airports operations is used to lower landing fees that the city charges airlines at LAX and Ontario--not for the relief of taxpayers. The fees help finance the self-supporting department.

After the contracts expire, it is likely that the City Council will view the city’s airports as money producers, Department of Airports officials predict. Airline service is prohibited by city law at Van Nuys. But if leasing the newly available land caused that airport to make a profit--it now runs slightly in the red--the money would be added to the Department of Airports’ account.

Interest in Profit

“Already I’m hearing from some council members, including more than one from the Valley, who want to see us make a profit on airports as soon as we can,” Greenberg said. He declined to identify the council members.

A Department of Airports staff member, who asked not to be identified, predicted that the commission “will never go for a big museum-park. Nothing over three to five acres. The dollar loss would be enormous.”

The commission is not expected to pick a plan until next year.

Lacy said an “attractive, workable museum could probably be built on five acres, but on two acres you could do nothing.”

Museum proponents are suggesting 15 to 20 acres because that is the minimum needed to include the existing Air Guard hangars, which will become city property when the 146th Tactical Airlift Wing finishes moving to Point Mugu at the end of the year.

Hangar Renovation

To replace the hangars would cost about $10 million, Lacy said, but renovating them for museum use could run as little as $1 million. “The fact that the hangars already are here is what makes this museum proposal seem so feasible,” he said.

Lacy envisions a museum that would display historic and exotic aircraft, and would have audiovisual displays on the history of aviation and the mechanics of aircraft construction.

Tourists and school groups could visit on day trips, and community groups and companies could rent portions of the museum for events, said Lacy, who holds numerous flying records.

“This area is the most aviation-oriented region of the nation,” he said, “and the museum would fit perfectly into the community.”