Mayor Subs Security for LAX Growth

Mayor James K. Hahn will introduce a plan today that scales back a proposed $12-billion expansion of Los Angeles International Airport, beefing up security and air safety measures while eliminating proposals geared toward growth.

Hahn will seek to study elimination of parking structures in the airport’s central terminal area, according to a source familiar with the plan. The change would force more travelers to rely on such mass transit options as high-speed rail lines to get to and from the facility.

To accommodate longer lines at ticket counters and security checkpoints, Hahn will ask airport officials to consider building a facility several blocks east of LAX, where passengers would check their bags and pass through security before boarding a public conveyance to airline terminals.

This morning’s briefing at LAX will be the first time the mayor has articulated his vision for improving the 41-year-old facility--an effort that even before last month’s terrorist attacks was one of the most urgent issues facing Hahn.

The announcement will effectively mark the end of the LAX expansion plan that was six years and $60 million in the making and meant to be a hallmark of Mayor Richard Riordan’s administration.

Riordan’s plan was created when the debate over airports centered on how to move increasing numbers of passengers. Now, concern over growth has taken a back seat to worries about security.

Hahn’s proposal would allow the airport to grow to serve 78 million passengers a year--a number many anti-expansion groups have said they could live with. Riordan’s plan was written to accommodate 89 million travelers a year by 2015. LAX was built to handle 40 million passengers a year, but served 67 million in 2000.

Hahn’s suggested alternative, which is subject to change, will do away with many elements airport neighbors hate most about the current master plan, including a proposal for a road circling the airport to handle more cars and a new passenger terminal to accommodate more airplanes.

Hahn’s plan doesn’t call for additional gates at which to park airplanes--a key indicator of expansion. Riordan’s proposal included 42 additional gates.

Several key opponents of the current master plan who were briefed Friday on Hahn’s initiative said they found it promising.

“The master plan last time was too big, too grand and too expensive, and completely inconsistent with needs of people around the airport,” said Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), whose district includes some areas surrounding the airport. “This time it’s focusing on what’s on everyone’s mind: increasing security and capping growth.”

Increasing air safety at LAX is also a major component of the mayor’s new plan. LAX logged the highest number of serious near crashes among the nation’s busiest airports from 1997 to 2000, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

To address this, Hahn’s plan includes a provision that would move runways farther apart. The airport’s runways now do not meet an FAA requirement that they be at least 1,000 feet apart. The facility’s four runways--one set of two to the north and another to the south--are 750 feet from each another.

Instead of moving the runways closer toward El Segundo and Westchester--a recommendation included in Riordan’s plan--Hahn proposes moving the runways closer to the airport terminals.

Until now, Hahn has kept quiet about his ideas for modernizing the aging facility--speaking out only to reinforce his belief in a pledge he signed during the mayoral campaign. The pledge said that candidates did not support the master plan as written, and that Los Angeles should work with the airport and other communities to develop a regional air transportation plan.

The mayor had just started to work toward this goal in the weeks before Sept. 11. He sent a letter to the Airport Commission requesting that it take steps to increase the number of flights at Ontario International Airport.

Also, Hahn has taken on a national role in the debate over airport security. He was asked on Sept. 27 to serve as chairman of the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ task force on airport security.

This group of big-city mayors will develop security suggestions for the Bush administration. Hahn’s role has given the mayor insight into new ideas to make airports more secure, according to a source familiar with his LAX proposal.

“He wants to ensure Los Angeles becomes the prototype of the safest airport in the U.S.,” the source said.

To allow a new plan six years after the LAX expansion proposals, airport officials will tie Hahn’s idea into the current master plan, using public comments collected since January. Public hearings continue through the fall. If his plan progresses, it will require new environmental studies.

Then, the city agency that operates the airport would be required to hold additional public hearings on the revised plan. The document would eventually move to the Airport Commission and then to the City Council for review.

Hahn and the city agency that operates the airport are likely to have a tough time getting airline executives to find time to discuss the new modernization proposal. The airlines, which pay most of the costs to expand airports through landing fees and rents, are distracted by security and financial concerns. They have lost billions of dollars and served layoff notices to thousands of employees in the weeks following the attacks.

Declining air travel led many airports across the country to pull back on expansion plans in the last few weeks. But many agree that passengers will eventually return to the skies, reinforcing the need to expand the country’s overused airports.