Official Presses Fight for Larger LAX

Signaling that the controversial plan to expand Los Angeles International Airport isn’t as dead as some would like, airports chief Lydia H. Kennard made a forceful case Wednesday for the much-criticized proposal, promising traffic congestion relief for the Westside.

Kennard also pledged a reconfiguring of airport runways without adding a controversial new one.

Kennard, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, laid out the plan during a luncheon speech to Town Hall. She said officials are nearing the release of a final 12,000-page environmental impact statement laying out various airport expansion scenarios.

“Crisis is imminent if we don’t increase airport capacity,” Kennard told the group of business and civic leaders.

The plan Kennard favors calls for construction of a terminal to handle continued growth in passenger and cargo traffic, along with an expressway to the airport off the San Diego Freeway and construction of a road around the airport. Cost estimates have ranged up to $12 billion.

Many believe it has little chance of ever succeeding, despite strong support from Mayor Richard Riordan, because of opposition by leaders of neighboring communities and regional transportation leaders. They say it makes more sense to develop airports in Palmdale, Ontario and Orange County.

“This plan is essentially dead,” said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, an ardent opponent of the mayor’s plan, commenting on Kennard’s speech. “In a nutshell, this flight has been canceled. It is time to send the crew home for a rest.”

Galanter said Riordan, whose term expires next year, may have already run out of time.

Publication of the environmental impact report, expected to be out by now, has already been delayed.

“We have a little bit more work to do,” Kennard said. “We anticipate that the final documents will be ready for public release very, very shortly.”

The Los Angeles City Council would like a 180-day public review period, which would probably run into next spring’s mayoral and City Council elections and virtually assure that the problem of airport expansion would land in the lap of Riordan’s successor. Mayoral candidates have been reluctant to embrace Riordan’s proposal.

But Kennard said: “If we do nothing, the future looks much worse. Demand for air service will continue to grow and we will have done nothing to mitigate [the problem].”