Airport Officials Defend Van Nuys Hangar Allocation

Los Angeles airport officials have fired off a defense of their decision to spend $11.5 million to rebuild two massive World War II hangars at Van Nuys Airport--the most expensive project in the airport’s history, which has been mired in dispute and mystery since it was announced.

John J. Driscoll, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, as the city airport department is now called, sent a seven-page letter last week to the 17 members of the Van Nuys Airport Citizens Advisory Council.

Airport administrators “have been disappointed at the rhetoric and misinformation surrounding these two hangars,” he told the members of the committee, which had criticized the decision.

Officials have debated for years whether to replace or repair the hangars, each of which is larger than the size of two football fields. But members of the airport advisory committee and others became outraged when they learned airport commissioners in January had quietly allocated $11.5 million for repairs.

The committee members demanded that airport officials explain the spending decision and the circumstances surrounding the project, which will oust a small entertainment industry business that airport officials have been trying unsuccessfully to evict from one of the leased hangars.

In his letter, Driscoll defended the staffs of the department and the Board of Airport Commissioners, which oversees the department, saying he was confident they “followed proper procedures.” He emphasized that the $11.5 million allocated was less than the most recent cost estimate of $12 million and outlined the chronology that led to the commission’s action.

Copies of the letter were sent to Mayor Richard Riordan, all City Council members, plus airport commissioners and officials.

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The project was challenged by George Jerome, chairman of the citizens group, who called the repair contract “an abuse of money that is staggering.”

Jerome, who received Driscoll’s letter on Monday, was unswayed by the reply.

“I have to believe there is something going on here that should not be going on,” he said. “It’s all backward.”

Repairs to the hangars, damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, initially were estimated to exceed $3.25 million, which climbed to $5.5 million in 1995, rose again in 1996 to more than $9 million, then to almost $12 million last April, according to Driscoll’s letter.

Department officials have said they expect to recover virtually the entire cost of the project from the earthquake insurer, Cigna, and from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The city could not use such funds for any purpose other than to rebuild the hangars, so there is no point in not doing so, officials contend. If the city wanted to replace--as opposed to repair--the hangars, then the insurance funds could be used only for demolition, not new buildings, Driscoll wrote. Replacing the two would cost $15 million, he said.

Commissioners approved the $11.5-million expense at a meeting Jan. 13. The item was left off the meeting agenda mailed to the public. But it was included--as the law allows--on a final agenda posted on a wall outside the commission’s hearing room in the department’s headquarters building at Los Angeles International Airport.

But many people, including the manager of Van Nuys Airport, said at the time they were unaware any action on the hangar issue was pending. Many did not learn of the action until weeks later.

The highest repair estimate of almost $12 million was contained in a consultant’s report titled “Final Revised Cost Estimate,” according to Driscoll’s letter.

That report was not included among reports requested by The Times to document justification of the $11.5-million allocation.

A contract was signed April 17 with Matt Construction of Santa Fe Springs to begin design work on one of the hangars, which has been vacant since the earthquake.

Construction work on the second hangar will force out Syncro Aircraft Interiors, which leases a portion of one of the hangars to design and create custom furnishings for aircraft. Airport officials said they would try to find a temporary facility for the aircraft business.

But for the past several years, Syncro has developed a lucrative side business renting out portions of the gigantic hangar as sound stages popular with film and TV companies.

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The airport is attempting to evict Syncro, saying the filming is not an authorized use of the hangar. The airport department has requested building and safety officials to halt film work there on the grounds that it is an illegal use of the site.

Syncro has protested the airport action as arbitrary and unexplained. The company’s supporters--including neighbors who embrace the filming enterprise as a quiet alternative to aviation uses--accuse the airport of having a variety of ulterior motives, including grabbing the lucrative film business for itself.

Airport officials deny the charges and counter that Syncro is subleasing space to which it is not entitled.

Airport officials are expected to answer questions at an advisory committee meeting at 7 tonight. The session will be held in the Balboa Room in the North Building at the Airtel Plaza Hotel, 7277 Valjean Ave., Van Nuys.