Vote Clears Way for Houses Near Air Force Test Site : Lancaster: The city’s move could allow development under noisy flight paths. Critics say that could bring trouble.

The Lancaster City Council has unanimously approved proposals that may allow construction of 1,450 houses below flight paths of Air Force Plant 42, despite protests by Air Force officials and residents who call the proposals a blueprint for conflict.

The housing developments still must go through several stages of planning review. But critics said Wednesday’s vote could result in the problems that have plagued residential neighborhoods near airports nationwide: blight, noise, pollution and ongoing homeowner-airport battles.

“We have seen time and again around this country that houses and airports just don’t mix,” said Lt. Col. Mario Cafiero, commander of Plant 42, an Air Force manufacturing and testing site in Palmdale that shares its runways with the Palmdale Regional Airport.

He warned in an interview that noise levels will increase as new military aircraft projects get under way and new commercial flights begin at the Palmdale airport next month. Cafiero estimated that there are between 200 and 300 military flights a day out of the facility.

“In my eyes it is ludicrous to put the least compatible type of land right around the airfield,” Cafiero said. “Why do we have to repeat those same mistakes?”

But City Council members said they voted to amend the city’s General Plan as requested by the developers of two housing developments because the proposals were modified to provide lower-density housing and open space in areas most affected by aircraft noise.

Mayor Lynn Harrison, who voted against the original proposals earlier this year, said she changed her vote because of the modifications. She and other council members criticized the Air Force for failing to complete a study that officials have said will provide evidence that noise has increased in recent years. The city is working with Air Force noise studies that are more than 10 years old.

“There is a potential that if the Air Force brings us new information we may have to amend our policies in this area,” Harrison said Thursday. She said she would not hesitate to vote against residential construction in that case.

Cafiero said the Air Force study should be complete in time to affect the outcome of that process.

The General Plan amendments approved this week were proposed by Kaufman and Broad Land Co. which plans to build 1,120 houses on 400 acres, and developer Robert Sessler, who wants to build 330 houses on 108 acres.

The adjacent developments would run along Avenue L between 20th Street East and 35th Street East in Lancaster, about a mile north of Plant 42 in Palmdale. Flights at Plant 42 take off to the west but then turn and climb to the north and east over the proposed housing areas, Cafiero said.

After the proposals were rejected in April, Kaufman and Broad proposed that 68 acres in which noise levels exceed city-recommended standards be divided between parkland, commercial space and no more than one or two houses per acre. The rest of the area would allow up to seven houses an acre.

Similarly, Kessler modified his request to designate 43 acres of low-density housing within the excessive noise zone.

Councilman Els Groves said the developers satisfied the council’s concerns. “They have a right to develop their land unless there’s strong evidence that there are going to be problems,” he said.

But Cafiero and local residents said the modifications do not correct what they called the fundamental error of allowing residential development to go forward. Community activist Jack Wesesky said city officials are ignoring the potential for noise problems and the danger that a test aircraft could crash in the area.

“They are permitting developers and speculators to do the planning for the city,” he said. “They are totally ignoring the comfort and safety of the residents.”

BACKGROUND Los Angeles and Burbank have had running battles for years with noise-protestingneighbors of LAX and Burbank Airport, bringing legal and political pressure to bear against the airports. In December, 1988, a state administrative law judge rejected an attempt by the city of Los Angeles to impose stricter noise controls on Burbank Airport, ruling that Los Angeles helped create its own jet noise problems by allowing construction of residences too close to the airport. The judge said the city displayed a lack of “rational planning and zoning.”