Public to Hear 13 Options for Airport

City planning officials expect a large crowd and a lively discussion tonight at a public hearing on the proposed Van Nuys Airport master plan, which will dictate future development of the nation’s busiest general-aviation facility.

The document, initiated by the Los Angeles City Council nine years ago, lays out 13 scenarios for using--or not using--113 undeveloped acres at the 73-year-old airport. Public comments will be taken into consideration before planning officials make recommendations to two area planning committees, city planner Marc Woersching said.

“What the public preference is will be a major factor in coming up with my recommendation,” he said, adding that he has “no firm opinion” on the issue. “It will be based on what I and my department feel is best for the public good.”

A 6:30 p.m. public workshop, in which officials from Los Angeles World Airports will answer questions about the master plan, will be followed by the public hearing at 7:30 at the Airtel Plaza Hotel, 7277 Valjean St., Van Nuys. A room able to hold 500 people has been secured for the event.

The only other public hearing on the master plan was held in December 1996, when nearby homeowners, business and aviation tenants of the airport commented on the plan and environmental impact report, which detailed scenarios ranging from developing all 113 acres to closing the airport and using the total 730 acres for commercial buildings and homes.

Los Angeles World Airports, formally the city’s Department of Airports, released a so-called “compromise alternative” in summer 1997 that favored developing 70 of the 113 acres for aviation and 43 acres for other uses. A year ago, the staff of Los Angeles World Airports responded to letters from proponents and opponents of the master plan in a report to the city planning department.

After tonight’s public hearing, state law requires that the master plan go before the county Airport Land Use Commission, which will recommend one of the 13 suggested scenarios.

In the spring, the plan will go to the South Valley and North Valley Area Planning Commissions, with a recommendation from the city’s planning department attached.

The Board of Airport Commissioners and the city Planning Commission will then consider the plan before it goes to the mayor, two City Council committees, and finally the full council, which probably won’t happen until later this year or in early 2002, according to Woersching.

Stop the Noise!, a coalition of 28 homeowners groups, and the Angeles chapter of the Sierra Club are expected to be represented at tonight’s hearing.

Gerald Silver, who heads up the homeowners coalition, said his group wants a limit of no more than 107 jets and 44 helicopters at the airport, the numbers it held in 1996. In 1999, the most current year available, there were 128 jets and 65 helicopters at the airport.