Council OKs Law to Boost LAX Income : Revenue: Ordinance raises street improvement fees that must be paid for each car a new terminal puts on the road. It ends an exemption for the airport and raises costs for area developers.

The city of Los Angeles has come up with another way to siphon funds from its lucrative international airport.

The City Council this week approved an ordinance that will charge those who build terminals--either airlines or the semi-independent Department of Airports--a one-time fee of $5,690 for each car expected to use the new facilities.

Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, sponsor of the law, hailed it as a breakthrough that will force the Westside’s largest automobile traffic producer to pay for improving streets, bridges and traffic signals.

“It’s important because previously the biggest traffic producer was exempt from these fees. Now, any future developer at the airport will be forced to kick into the transportation development fund,” Galanter said.

With the airport helping to pay for street improvements, money from the city’s general fund can be freed to pay for police and other services, Galanter said.

The airport is at the center of municipal interest as Mayor Richard Riordan and his aides seek ways to divert airport revenue to other city purposes.

But airline officials questioned whether the latest charges are legal and left open the possibility of challenging the law in court. Forty domestic and foreign airlines sued last week to prevent another new airport charge--the city’s move to triple fees it charges for planes landing at Los Angeles International.

The transportation law approved Wednesday amends an existing ordinance that was sponsored by Galanter’s predecessor, City Council President Pat Russell.

Russell had put in place the Coastal Transportation Corridor Specific Plan to make developers pay for street improvements around projects in the busy corridor between Santa Monica and El Segundo.

But the law produced little revenue because its fees were low and it included many exemptions--most notably relieving the airport of the traffic charges.

Galanter has worked since her election in 1987 to amend the Russell ordinance.

Wednesday’s unanimous City Council vote not only brought the airport within the law, but it also increased the amount that all developers in the area must pay. The fee went from about $2,300 to $5,690 for every car that new developments put on the road during the typical peak afternoon commute hours.

The law also includes amendments, sought by Westchester business people, to exempt smaller projects that serve the local community and do not draw traffic from a wide area.

At the airport, the traffic fees will be paid by the builders of terminals and other facilities. If an airline builds its own terminal, it will be responsible for the fees. If the Airport Department builds a terminal to be leased to air carriers, the department will pay the fees.

City officials said it may be some time before the city receives any money from the new law, however, because expansion plans for the airport are not expected to proceed for several years.

Galanter and city transportation officials had hoped for an even more stringent amendment that would have charged airlines for increases in automobile traffic, even without the construction of terminals.

Between 1985 and last year, for example, the airport’s average annual flow of airline travelers jumped by 8 million passengers a year, bringing about 2,400 additional cars to the airport during the peak evening commute hours. If the new trip fee had been enacted during that period, it would have generated $13.6 million for traffic improvements around the airport.

But the city attorney’s office and Riordan’s staff argued that the transportation charges should be applied only to traffic generated by construction of facilities, not by increased flights into existing terminals.

Galanter eventually agreed to that point of view.

A spokesman for the Washington-based Air Transport Assn. argued, however, that the city’s action will be self-defeating--damaging the larger goal of invigorating the local economy by encouraging commerce.

“This is going to impose major costs on any expansion plans. It gets back to the question of what the council wants at the airport,” said Chris Chiames. “Do they want it to be a catalyst for growth or a cash cow for the city? It’s apparent they want it to be a cash cow.”