Residents Oppose Air Ambulance Heliport Site : Services: A plan would move the flights from Van Nuys Airport to the Hollywood Hills.

Hollywood Hills residents opposed to a proposed 24-hour air ambulance service on Mt. Lee--which would eliminate such flights from Van Nuys Airport--have called on city officials to conduct a new environmental assessment of the project, which they fear will fill the skies with noisy helicopters.

Fire officials, who currently respond to trauma calls from Van Nuys, want to operate a permanent, centrally-located heliport at Mt. Lee that would serve the entire city. Fire officials say the move would cut about 10 minutes from response times to trauma calls in the central city, where growing violence and an overburdened trauma-care network are pushing resources to their limit.

In a letter to the city’s Planning Commission, the board of the Hollywoodland Homeowners Assn. described the city’s environmental clearance for the project as “inadequate” and demanded a complete environmental impact report, the most detailed review possible.

“We are aware of the need for availability of emergency services to the metropolitan area,” the letter states. “It would be to our benefit to have such a unit stationed on Mt. Lee, however to add this additional stress to the existing traffic above us is potentially dangerous as well as aurally unhealthy.”

The letter was presented Monday at a City Hall hearing on a request by the Los Angeles Fire Department for a permit to launch the $3.4-million service. The permit would allow the department to station a medical helicopter on Mt. Lee just above the “Hollywood” sign and convert a vacant 1,200-square-foot building into quarters for paramedics and pilots.

Several Hollywoodland residents at the hearing voiced concerns about the environmental implications of an around-the-clock helicopter presence.

“The environmental impact on the wildlife in the area has not been addressed,” resident Christine O’Brien said. “There is about 4,000 acres of Griffith Park there that is the home of a lot of wildlife, and the impact of this could negatively affect the wildlife.”

Michael Arth, who recently built a home in the area, said the noise from existing helicopter traffic--including police, fire, media and sightseeing aircraft--is deafening.

“I can’t even talk on the phone inside my house,” Arth said.

Planning Commission Hearing Examiner Charles Rausch said the Fire Department had already received environmental clearance from the city for the project but he said he would consider the requests for a more comprehensive review.

Rausch conducts public hearings for the commission and makes recommendations. The commission has the authority to grant a permit for the air ambulance service, but that decision could be appealed to the City Council.

Deputy Fire Chief Donald Anthony told the hearing, “We do not want to upset the citizens” living near the proposed heliport, but added, “We feel it is our responsibility to address the issues that we feel can provide the best level of service for the entire 3.5 million population of this city.”

Anthony said the Fire Department has been using the city-owned Mt. Lee for emergency operations since 1963, and he pledged to continue using the site for those purposes--such as firefighting and rescues--regardless of the city’s ruling on the air ambulance service.

None of the 30 or so residents who attended the hearing objected to the use of Mt. Lee in emergencies, but many said a 24-hour ambulance service was better suited for a less-residential area. Carole Hill said the Fire Department had failed to persuade residents that the service could not remain at Van Nuys Airport.

“What the Mt. Lee proposal adds up to, intentionally or not, is an exercise in empire building, an effort to put the Fire Department in the heliport business,” Hill said. “Inevitably, there would be pressures from other agencies and interests . . . to use the heliport on the grounds it was a municipal facility. The Fire Department would find itself presiding over a mini-LAX.” Chuck Welch, head of the Hollywoodland committee on helicopters, said Fire Department use of helicopters during rescue operations in the area has made some homeowners wary about department claims that an air ambulance service would not be disruptive. Welch described a recent rescue of an injured hiker near the “Hollywood” sign that he said involved 30 personnel and 10 vehicles, including two helicopters.

“We have to be quite frank with the Fire Department,” Welch said. “It is our opinion that they are inclined to overreact like kids with an expensive toy.”

Some residents broke with their neighbors and voiced cautious support for the Fire Department proposal. Andrew Ettinger, head of the safety committee for the Lake Hollywood Homeowners Assn., said in a letter to Rausch that “the saving of human life is worth any amount of noise or inconvenience.”

Frank A. De Fazio, also of Lake Hollywood, urged approval with a series of restrictions.

The Planning Commission is scheduled to consider the issue on Sept. 6, but fire officials and Council President John Ferraro, who represents most of the area, have asked that the vote be delayed until October so that the department can hold a series of community meetings.