Mayor Seeks Delay in Razing at Airport : Van Nuys: A commission is asked to OK use of ex-Air National Guard facilities to house city helicopters.

Mayor Tom Bradley has asked the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners to delay razing the former Air National Guard headquarters at Van Nuys Airport, saying he would like to use the property as a temporary home for city helicopters now crowded into another airport site.

The commission plans to demolish the former guard facilities eventually as part of a plan to develop the 62-acre site. But airport officials said the mayor’s proposal would not interfere with those plans because development of the land is about five years away.

In a letter dated Dec. 30, Bradley asked the commission--an appointed body with independent powers over the city’s airports--to consider using the facility to house some of the 28 helicopters and two airplanes used by the city’s fire, police and general services departments. The city now stores and maintains the aircraft on about three acres of adjacent airport property.

City officials said several studies of the city’s helicopter operations found that more space is needed. The city operates one hangar for maintenance and repairs, but most of the city’s aircraft are parked outside. The former Air National Guard base has a number of large hangars and several smaller ones, along with a two-story office building and many smaller office and shop buildings.

Under the mayor’s request, helicopters now left in the open could be sheltered at the former guard site. The city’s main base of air operations at the airport would remain where it is.

Gary Yates, chief pilot for the city’s General Services Department, said the present helicopter facility was built in 1970 to accommodate 13 aircraft and is too small to handle the growing fleet. “Parking for the helicopters has been inadequate for many years,” he said.

Commission President Robert Chick said Monday that Bradley’s plan will be discussed at the commission’s regular meeting next week. Chick said he had not studied the request and had formed no opinion on it.

“The letter asks them to allow us to use the adjacent hangar facilities, but that will not interfere with the redevelopment plan of the airport,” said Randall Bacon, general manager of the General Services Department, which manages the city’s helicopters. “The mayor made it clear that we have no intention of making this an infringement on the airport.”

Gerald A. Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino and a frequent airport critic, said the proposal should be thoroughly studied as part of the airport’s master plan before it is approved. Airport officials said a master plan, which guides long-term development, is two to five years away from completion.

Silver also criticized airport officials for considering Bradley’s plan after rejecting a proposal last year to house some of the city’s homeless in the vacant structures.

“Who are we going to cover, the helicopters or the homeless?” he asked.

Don Schultz, president of Ban Airport Noise, another group critical of airport operations, said he had no objection to the proposal as long as the city does not add to the helicopter fleet and promises not to take off over residential areas.

“If they are not adding helicopters, I have no problem with it,” he said.

Development of the Air National Guard site has been in question since June, 1990, when the airport commissioners canceled a study of development proposals for the much-disputed land on the northwest corner of the airport.

The site is east of Balboa Boulevard and south of Roscoe Boulevard about 300 yards from the city’s helicopter storage area. While some of the land has been vacant for years, about two-thirds of it became available for development in April, 1990, when the Air National Guard moved to Point Mugu.

A consultant hired by the airport board had recommended that 1 million square feet of office and industrial space be developed there, yielding an estimated $4.7 million a year in lease income to the Department of Airports.

The recommendation, however, came under fierce attack by neighbors, who feared that the development would generate too much traffic on adjacent residential streets. Pilots and aviation-related businesses at the airport also criticized the plan, saying it did not provide for enough aviation uses.

The airport commissioners agreed to give a group of small-plane owners a one-year lease to house about 30 aircraft in portable hangars on the guard site. Airport officials said the group, known as the Van Nuys Hangar Assn., has until next month to request an extension or renewal of the lease, which expires in August.

The group formerly subleased eight acres from Raleigh Jet Enterprises, which displaced the pilots to renovate a fueling area and construct a new terminal and larger hangar.

Van Nuys Airport Manager Ron Kochevar said Bradley’s plan to house city helicopters will not conflict with the hangar association’s lease unless the pilots cannot find a permanent home and request a longer lease.