L.A., Inglewood Agree on Airport Noise, Traffic Issues

City officials from Los Angeles and Inglewood reached an agreement Tuesday on a controversial plan designed to address noise, traffic and other environmental concerns stemming from growth at Los Angeles International Airport.

The agreement, marking a milestone in a long-running fight between the airport administration and residents of the city on the eastern boundary of LAX, covers soundproofing of homes, a $10-million upgrading of Century Boulevard and efforts to reduce air pollution.

The agreement was forged during a series of closed-door meetings over a period of months by representatives of both cities.

The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners approved the agreement during a closed-door session Tuesday, then ratified it in an open meeting. Hours later, it was approved on a 3-1 vote by the Inglewood City Council.

Lydia H. Kennard, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that operates LAX, said the agreement signaled “a great partnership” between Inglewood and the airport. She said the accord was about being “a good neighbor” and “has nothing to do” with the long-range master plan released by the airport last month.

But critics of airport expansion say the agreement is clearly designed to pave the way to approval of the LAX master plan.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), in a letter faxed Tuesday to the Inglewood City Council, said she was adamantly opposed to the agreement. She called it “a cynical attempt to make it appear that the concerns raised regarding the expansion of Los Angeles International Airport will be corrected and LAX expansion will be acceptable to the community. This is certainly not true.”

Inglewood Councilwoman Judy Dunlap, who cast the lone vote against the agreement, said approval of the memorandum “is a tacit approval of airport expansion regardless of what it appears to be on its face.” She complained about the secrecy surrounding approval of the agreement, which she said was kept from the public until after the vote.

Inglewood City Administrator Joseph T. Rouzan Jr. said a key part of the memorandum involved an agreement by LAX to suspend a requirement that Inglewood residents waive their legal rights to sue the airport if their homes were soundproofed. More than 11,000 homes qualify for soundproofing, at an average cost of about $25,000 a home.

The legal waivers are a hot-button issue in Inglewood. Residents complain that they should not be required to sign away their legal rights in order to soundproof their homes.

Rouzan said the agreement does not address the LAX expansion plan. “All we are talking about is giving our people relief from the noise and pollution from the airport and getting money to fix up our homes,” he said.

LAX also agreed to spend up to $10 million to soundproof homes that otherwise would not qualify, to launch new night-flight studies and to expand studies of the air quality near LAX. The airport also pledged to set up a program to create more jobs for Inglewood residents.