County OKs Changes for Airport Plan

After hearing concerns from more than a dozen pilots and residents, the Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to make changes to the Camarillo Airport master plan before tentatively approving the facility’s long-range goals.

Although county airport officials, pilots and residents had agreed to postpone consideration of adding a second runway or extending the existing one, the planning document still showed a blueprint for a new airstrip.

The airport master plan also did not adequately illustrate the area dedicated for use by ultralight planes and it increased the number of hangars that would be relocated under the proposal.

“The document produced here today does not reflect our . . . agreements,” Robert Fowler, a Simi Valley resident and president of the Camarillo Airport Hangar Assn., told the supervisors.

The supervisors instructed Rodney Murphy, county airport chief, to ensure that the document show only 35 hangars being moved to improve airplane traffic. In response to homeowners’ fears, supervisors also asked Murphy to find a way in the document to show that the second runway will be studied at a later date and that it is not part of the current plan.

“Our concern is that noise and pollution bring down property values,” said Barbara Wagner, a member of the Rancho Adolfo Estates homeowners group, referring to the potential effects of a new runway.

Murphy stressed that any changes at the airport will arise only if the facility gains more users.

“It is demand-driven,” Murphy said.

Projections in a $150,000 study prepared by Phoenix-based Coffman Associates state that in 20 years the number of planes based at the airport will jump from 580 to about 890.

Murphy said the airport will never be used for commercial air traffic.

Some pilots backed the master plan presented Tuesday.

“[The airport] is not going to become another LAX,” said Dave Timmons of the Ventura County Aviation Advisory Commission, adding the board should approve the plan.