LONG BEACH : Council Votes to Settle Suit Over Airport Use

A solidly pro-business City Council voted Tuesday to settle a 12-year-old lawsuit challenging efforts to limit the number of commercial flights into and out of Long Beach Airport.

The 7-1 vote affirms an agreement to allow 41 commercial flights a day between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. It also establishes new bridge periods, between 6 and 7 a.m. and between 10 and 11 p.m., during which a limited number of corporate jets can use the airport. The bridge provision brought an outcry at a recent council meeting from dozens of residents near the airport who said their sleep would be disturbed by corporate jets.

But council members who supported the measure said they voted for the economic good of the city.

Councilman Jeffrey A. Kellogg, whose district covers much of the airport’s flight path, was the only one who voted against the agreement. Councilwoman Doris Topsy-Elvord was absent.

The lawsuit was filed in 1983 by a group of commercial airlines that contended the city had no right to limit the number of flights. Since then, most commercial carriers have stopped doing business at Long Beach Airport, leaving only six commercial flights and three cargo flights a day.

John Deats, a resident of Kellogg’s district and a member of the city’s Public Safety Commission, said community groups are already raising funds to mount a legal challenge to the agreement, charging that it violates state environmental regulations.