Study on Airfield Crash Zones Withdrawn

A controversial study establishing crash zones in six cities around the Los Alamitos Armed Forces Reserve Center airfield was withdrawn this week by federal officials who say the document requires further review.

“We have to be satisfied that it has been correctly and properly done,” said Gordon Hobbs, an official who works in the office of the assistant secretary of the Army. “There is going to be a complete review of the study.”

The study recommended establishing “accident potential zones” in parts of Cypress, Stanton, Seal Beach, Buena Park, Garden Grove, Anaheim and the unincorporated community of Rossmoor. The zones were based on takeoff and landing patterns and extend almost three miles at each end of the runway.

Hobbs said the study--which has raised a furor among city officials who feared it may harm prospects for new development and affect property values--was only “preliminary” and “not intended as a final document.”

The study, which was ordered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was scheduled to go before the county Airport Land Use Commission for consideration next month.

Because of the danger of crashes, the study recommended that development in the accident zone areas be limited to such uses as farm land, cemeteries and roads. Several hundred homes, businesses and a school--all considered inappropriate for the area--have been built in the accident zones.

Adoption of the study by the Airport Land Use Commission could have severely restricted new development in the accident zones. Commission officials said that each City Council would retain the right to override the commission’s decision but such an action would require a four-fifths majority and would make that city potentially liable for a crash in an accident zone area.

Many of the questions raised by area city officials since the report was made public a few months ago will be considered during the review process, Hobbs said.

At a Cypress City Council meeting last month, John Chevalier, a consultant hired to study the plan, said it was flawed because it didn’t take into account the types of aircraft that use the air base.

“This is something we certainly are going to be looking at,” Hobbs said, adding that he did not know how long it would take to review the plan.

According to Army statistics, helicopters account for more than 97% of the air traffic at the base. If this criteria had been used when the study was conducted, the accident zones for the airfield would have been limited to 1,000 feet from each end of the runway and would be contained within the boundaries of the base, Chevalier said.

Hobbs said that one of the difficulties in researching the issue is that the Army does not have regulations laying out how to conduct such a study. He said he is not aware of any other Army installation in the nation that has adopted a land-use study. One was undertaken for Los Alamitos because of the development surrounding the airfield, he said.

Cypress officials, who solicited help from surrounding cities to have the study withdrawn, applauded the Army’s action.

“We couldn’t believe it,” said Cypress Mayor Cecilia L. Age. “But we certainly will continue to monitor the new study.”

At least two cities and the Anaheim Union High School District have adopted resolutions denouncing the Army study.