Hahn Relents, Seeks More Time for Comment on LAX Plan

Bowing to pressure from lawmakers and the business community, Mayor James K. Hahn sent a letter Monday to the city’s Airport Commission asking it to extend the public comment period for his $9-billion plan to modernize Los Angeles International Airport.

The letter asks the commission, which is appointed by the mayor, to work with the Federal Aviation Administration to push back the deadline for comments from Aug. 25 to Nov. 7.

Hahn also requested that the commission set three additional public hearings for the plan this fall. Nine hearings are now planned from Aug. 11 to Aug. 23.

“Because my plan is clearly the environmentally superior alternative,” the letter states, “I believe support for it will grow as more people, organizations and companies become familiar with the many innovative features it affords travelers, shippers and airport workers.”

Earlier this month, Hahn released a 5,323-page environmental report for his modernization plan, which he says emphasizes security and safety. Since then, a growing chorus of residents, lawmakers and business representatives has asked him to extend the comment period on the 11-volume report.

The mayor initially refrained from doing so, hoping to meet an ambitious timetable to complete the environmental documents and send the plan to the City Council and on to the FAA for its review. He hoped to break ground on the project in late 2004. At 45 days, the mayor had provided the shortest public comment period allowed by law.

But a majority of City Council members, led by Cindy Miscikowski, whose district includes LAX, agreed that the project should be taken off the fast track and reviewed more thoroughly. Federal lawmakers, including Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who represents Inglewood, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors also have called on the mayor to lengthen the comment period.

Business leaders, including Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce President Rusty Hammer, also pressured the mayor’s office to provide more time for comments. Hammer sent a letter to the mayor last week asking that he extend the comment period and add more hearings.

“There’s obviously a lot of momentum and sense underscoring the need for 120 days,” Miscikowski said Monday. “We’re very pleased that the mayor has agreed to our request.”

The mayor’s plan to modernize LAX would significantly reshape the 75-year-old facility by demolishing Terminals 1, 2 and 3; knocking down parking structures in the central terminal area; building a passenger check-in center about a mile east of the airport; and moving sets of parallel runways on either side of the airfield farther apart.