Set More Airport Hearings, FAA Told

Los Angeles County Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Don Knabe on Thursday threatened to sue if the FAA doesn’t schedule extra public hearings on the $12-billion Los Angeles International Airport expansion plan.

In a letter to be sent to Federal Aviation Administration chief Jane Garvey today, Knabe and Antonovich complain that three simultaneous public hearings scheduled for June 9 do not adequately allow residents to comment on the 12,000-page LAX master plan, which includes several environmental studies.

“It’s an insult to the neighbors of the airport to schedule three public hearings on the same day at three different locations,” said Knabe, whose district includes neighborhoods around LAX. “Obviously, their full intent was to disperse the opposition.”

The hearings are being held jointly by the FAA and Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that operates LAX and three other airports. If the FAA doesn’t schedule additional hearings, Knabe said, the county’s attorney will seek an injunction prohibiting the FAA and airport agency from closing the 180-day public comment period on the master plan on July 25.

The letter is the latest salvo in a contentious debate about how Southern California airports will accommodate a projected doubling of passengers by 2025. The expansion favored by the city’s airport agency would boost annual passenger traffic at LAX from about 67 million to 89 million by 2015.

City and county officials are divided about the plan to expand the 73-year-old airport, while residents of neighborhoods ringing the facility, worried about traffic and noise, are firmly opposed.

FAA spokesman Jerry Snyder said the agency routinely considers requests to extend the public comment period on airport expansion plans. But this decision usually isn’t made until the current comment period expires, he said.

In their letter, the supervisors said an extension isn’t necessary--that the FAA and airport agency have enough time before the current public comment period expires to schedule additional hearings.

City airport officials said they have received thousands of comments on the plan and expect many more at the June 9 hearings, scheduled from noon to 7 p.m. at sites in Los Angeles, Inglewood and Manhattan Beach.

“Attendance at a public hearing is not necessary to have your comments included,” said Paul Haney, deputy executive director of public and community relations for the airport agency. “Written comments can be sent in as late as July 25 and will be given the same consideration.”

The future of the expansion plan will rest largely with the city’s next mayor. Both candidates have signed a pledge, drafted by an anti-expansion group, saying the plan “should not be submitted to nor approved by the city of Los Angeles.”