Earthquake: The Long Road Back : Post-Quake Use of Air Park Fails to Shake Old Debate : Agua Dulce: An L.A. County panel considers what to do with the site. Neighbors fear airport expansion.

The Northridge earthquake failed to break a decade-old holding pattern on the fate of the Agua Dulce Air Park.

Pilots say activity following the Jan. 17 Northridge quake proves the value of the airport to Los Angeles County, while neighbors say it shows how unnecessary the facility really is.

It’s all fodder for an advisory group pondering if the county should buy, lease or leave the site alone.

“We’re certainly interested as a commission in protecting an air park if we think it’s a benefit to the community of Los Angeles, not just Agua Dulce,” said Jim Burton, chairman of the Los Angeles County Aviation Commission subcommittee examining the air park.

In the week after the quake, the strip transported five law enforcement officers from Santa Clarita to San Fernando and Santa Monica and several insurance adjusters into the valley.

Utility company representatives flew in and checked for damage to oil and telephone lines and pilots had access to families and workers otherwise isolated by the collapsed Newhall Pass, according to activity logs provided by airport officials.

Records show 464 flights in and out of the private airport from Jan. 17 to 23, more than six times its normal activity.

Post-quake actions at the air park have swayed neither supporters nor opponents of a suggested county purchase of the 208-acre site.

Residents fear county ownership will bring increased noise, traffic and planes. They downplay recent air park activity, saying pilots are using scare tactics and that airborne assistance arrived easily with or without runways.

“It’s obvious help was rendered by helicopters, not fixed-wing planes,” said Jo Anne Swanson, who opposes expansion of the airport. “They turned themselves into a big helipad.”

Longtime members of this 2,100-resident community have watched for years as proposals to change the airstrip from private to public have come and gone. Two previous written and telephone surveys of Agua Dulce residents demonstrated majority opposition to any airport expansion.

“I haven’t changed my mind at all,” said Bernice Cressy, a 12-year neighbor of the air park. “The Santa Clarita Valley wouldn’t have suffered, I think, if they (pilots at Agua Dulce Air Park) hadn’t done something. They just jumped on the bandwagon.”

Pilots, who see county ownership of the 35-year-old facility as insurance it will not shut down and be turned into residential development, said recent usage demonstrates its importance in an emergency.

“This earthquake was a bad thing, but it was a great thing for the airport here,” said Vic Crowe, member of the Agua Dulce Airport Assn., who helped compile the logs in the days after the quake. “The value for the airport, at least for this disaster, was the availability for businesses, private corporations and government agencies.”

Crowe noted there was no damage to the air park’s asphalt and dirt runways, which some critics said would be unusable following a disaster such as an earthquake.

Recent use of the facility does provide additional information for the county Aviation Commission to consider for its April 15 report to the Board of Supervisors on what, if anything, to do about the air park.

“I think it confirms what we’ve been saying--it’s an important emergency facility,” said commission subcommittee chairman Burton after reviewing the daily logs.

However, he said he knows of no county plan to buy the air park.

The Airport Commission subcommittee is tentatively scheduled March 18 to hold another community hearing regarding the air park before presenting its report.

A similar session in November drew hundreds of pilots and Agua Dulce residents, even though a hearing on a controversial off-highway vehicle park and a local high school awards ceremony were held the same night.