Official Offers Alternative LAX Proposal

City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski disclosed details Wednesday of a compromise plan for modernizing Los Angeles International Airport that would cost a fraction of Mayor James K. Hahn’s $9-billion makeover and leave the existing airport largely intact.

With many city leaders declaring Hahn’s proposal dead before it reaches the council in coming months, Miscikowski has been meeting with representatives of airlines and the surrounding communities in an effort to craft an acceptable alternative.

Her plan calls for a far more modest modernization, costing roughly $3 billion. It would push the most controversial elements of Hahn’s blueprint -- including a passenger check-in center near the San Diego Freeway -- off to a second phase that would proceed only after an extensive public review.

By contrast, Hahn’s plan would dramatically change the way passengers use LAX by sending all private vehicles to the Westchester check-in center. It also calls for the demolition of Terminals 1, 2 and 3 and the parking garages in the central terminal area, replacing them with a new terminal complex.

But the mayor lost the two biggest champions of his plan, Deputy Mayor Troy Edwards and Airport Commission President Ted Stein, when they stepped down in recent weeks amid probes into city contracting. At the same time, Hahn has come under increasing pressure to change his plan from critics who say it costs too much and doesn’t significantly improve security.

Hahn declined to comment on Miscikowski’s ideas because he hadn’t been briefed on them, but Elizabeth Kaltman, a Hahn spokeswoman, said he was willing to consider changes.

“The mayor is really looking forward to working with Councilwoman Miscikowski and the rest of the council to move this process forward,” she said.

Miscikowski’s proposal features a consolidated rental car center, a transit hub and an elevated tram. It would move the outer runway on the south side closer to El Segundo. The councilwoman said her plan would address concerns about terrorism by upgrading security systems at existing terminals.

Her plan is similar to proposals suggested by influential business groups, several airlines and nearby communities.

But the unusual method that Miscikowski would use to implement her proposal has raised alarm bells among the very groups that the councilwoman is trying to placate.

State and federal environmental laws require the city to start the planning process over if significant changes are made to Hahn’s plan. To work within existing environmental studies, Miscikowski suggests that the council approve Hahn’s plan and send it to the Federal Aviation Administration for review.

Her LAX proposal would be spelled out in what is known as the specific plan -- a planning document required under city law, she said. The specific plan, she said, details what projects the city is allowed to build in the LAX area.

But Westchester and El Segundo residents are uneasy about that approach.

“Under no circumstances do we agree that the first step of any compromise is to accept [Hahn’s environmental studies] as is,” said Denny Schneider, a Westchester resident who has headed an effort by residents to draft an alternative LAX plan.

“This would have the impact of authorizing [Hahn’s plan] without any adequate safeguard that [Miscikowski’s] plan or any other compromise will ever be implemented,” Schneider said.

Miscikowski disagrees, saying the specific plan is a legal document that has “teeth” and is not easily changed once it is in place.

“The safeguard is in this legally drawn document that is a law and governs the city,” she said.

El Segundo residents are concerned about Miscikowski’s plan to move the one runway 50 feet closer to their city.

They also question whether the plan would limit growth at LAX to 78 million annual passengers -- something Hahn promised during his 2001 mayoral campaign.

El Segundo Mayor Mike Gordon said he would ask a UC Berkeley professor who is an expert in airport capacity to decide whether Miscikowski’s plan would limit the number of travelers who use LAX.

Gordon, who created a coalition that helped kill former Mayor Richard Riordan’s plans to greatly expand LAX’s capacity, shares Schneider’s doubts about allowing the council to approve Hahn’s proposal, known as Alternative D, without any assurance that it won’t be built in its entirety.

“We’re concerned about approving Alternative D under any condition,” Gordon said. “Why don’t we try to make this work in total? Why don’t we force this plan to be amended right now?”