Board OKs New Runway, 100 Hangars : Pacoima: Pilots complain about the few sheltered spaces at Whiteman Airport. The waiting list has 700 names.

Whiteman Airport in Pacoima could gain a new runway and 100 additional airplane hangars in the next five years under a plan approved Tuesday by Los Angeles County supervisors.

The master plan for the airport also calls for future construction of a new terminal and restaurant, a fuel island, an automobile parking lot and spaces for up to 510 more small planes to be tied down outdoors or housed in shed-like hangars.

Over the next 20 years, the improvements would cost $8.9 million, $3.2 million of which could be funded by Federal Aviation Administration grants.

The county would also require that private companies shoulder the cost of upgrading areas that provide services such as flight training and airplane rental and repair.

Pilots have long complained about the unavailability of hangars at the airport, which sits on 189 acres northeast of San Fernando Road between Pierce and Osborne streets.

Whiteman Airport Manager Jerry Bush said there is a 700-pilot waiting list to lease the 260 hangars, most of which were built in 1986.

“People being called up now for spaces have been on the list for four years,” Bush said.

Tuesday’s unanimous board approval of the plan, prepared by private consultants, enables the county to apply for federal funds to begin the project.

But before any construction can begin, the board must still consider construction and financing details.

Whiteman is one of five county-owned airports, all of which were turned over to a private management company, Comarco Inc., earlier this year.

The 20-year plan is the first major development proposal made under the Anaheim company’s leadership.

“What we’re trying to do is turn the airport into a business, to serve the community and the pilots . . . to make improvements as fast as we can,” said Bush, a Comarco consultant who began managing the airport a month ago.

By widening the runway from 40 to 75 feet and adding more airplane parking, airport consultants Hodges & Shuitt of Santa Rosa said the airport’s capacity could increase from about 670 landings and takeoffs a day to nearly 1,100.

The actual number of daily takeoffs and landings averaged 386 in 1989.

But the plan emphasized that Whiteman will not try to compete with or duplicate the more sophisticated services and longer runways that accommodate bigger planes and corporate jets at Van Nuys or Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena airports.

“It is anticipated that the past, present and future role of Whiteman Airport will remain essentially the same; that is, to serve the aeronautical needs of the personal, recreational and small business aircraft user,” the report said.

The existing Whiteman terminal structure, which Bush said was built as a park office building about 35 years ago, was described by the consultant as “old, in deteriorated condition and undersized.”

Customers also have to cross a taxiway to get to the buildings housing airport services, the plan said, a potentially dangerous situation that would be solved by moving the terminal building and the airport entrance.

Improvements would be made by demolishing some buildings and leveling some surrounding hills to enable expansion onto previously vacant land.

About two-thirds of the 189 acres already have some airport development on them, and the plan estimates that another 26 acres could be developed once the hills are leveled.

NEXT STEP

Construction projects laid out in the master plan to improve Whiteman Airport will be considered in stages by the County Board of Supervisors. In the months ahead, the county will apply for federal aviation funds for runway improvements. If the funds are received, the board will likely be asked to approve that project in late 1992. About a year later, proposals for hangar construction will come before the supervisors. Other aspects of the longer-term, 20-year expansion will come before the board separately in future years.