Delay Sought in Enforcing Law on Airports

Sen. Robert G. Beverly is pressing for passage of a bill to temporarily exempt cities in Los Angeles County from a potentially far-reaching new law to ensure orderly growth around airports.

With the support of the League of California Cities, Beverly is seeking a six-month moratorium on enforcement of the law that put teeth into statutes aimed at ensuring that hotels, office buildings, industrial parks and other projects are compatible with airports.

Beverly, a Republican from Manhattan Beach, described his bill as a stopgap measure until he can help hammer out a permanent solution. Airports in Los Angeles, Torrance, Long Beach, El Monte, Santa Monica, Compton, Hawthorne, La Verne, Burbank and Palmdale are among those affected.

At issue is the application of a law, authored last year by Sen. Marion Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), designed to protect pilots from undue hazards around airports and protect people who live and work around airports from noise and safety hazards.

Bergeson sought the law because airport land-use plans required by the state since 1970 had been completed for only about half the state’s 269 airports. Los Angeles County had not prepared a plan for any of its 16 airports.

In a letter to Beverly last week, Bergeson said: “I firmly believe that the Legislature should not give Los Angeles County officials the ability to delay even longer.”

Under her law, which took effect Jan. 1, the plans are required to be completed by June 30, 1991. It also requires that if an airport does not have a plan, many building projects, some as far as two miles from airports, will need approval from county airport land-use commissions as well as local governments.

Beverly’s proposal would delay the effective date in Los Angeles County until Jan. 1, 1992.

The Legislature has designated the Regional Planning Commission as the airport planning agency in Los Angeles County. But some landowners and cities want to avoid having the county conduct a project-by-project review.

John Huttinger, a planner with the commission, said since the Bergeson law took effect, only San Dimas and Torrance have filed permits for airport-related projects with the county.

More important, he said, 10 cities have maintained that the law does not apply to Los Angeles County. Huttinger said these cities are Long Beach, El Segundo, Palos Verdes Estates, South El Monte, Arcadia, Rolling Hills Estates, Lomita, San Fernando, Lancaster and Palmdale. He said the other 25 or so cities near airports, including Los Angeles, have not contacted his office.

Beverly inserted his proposal into a bill that was already in the Assembly. Action by the Assembly on Beverly’s bill could come as early as Monday.