To All Santa Monica City Council Members:
I write to you as a long-time homeowner and resident of Santa Monica to express my reservations regarding the City’s plans to close down our Santa Monica Airport (SMO) and convert the land into a “Grand Park.“
As you know, Measure LC, approved by Santa Monica voters in 2014, does not require the airport to be closed. The measure as worded presented voters with a “Hobson’s Choice” requiring the City Council to get an approval by residents for any plans to develop the airport property in exchange for giving it the right to close the airport without further consent by residents. I, for one, believe that approval of the measure was driven more by the fear among residents of leaving the City Council with rights to develop the airport site than by a wish to close airport operations.
A choice to keep the airport operational, to my knowledge, has never been made available to city residents. Instead, the plan for a “Grand Park” seems to have been railroaded over us by an invisible hand of influential political forces. At the direction of our City Council, great expense for elaborate studies by outside consultants has been incurred in spite of the city’s scarce resources.
Operations at SMO generate an ongoing financial surplus for the City – money that is sorely needed considering its poor financial state and future prospects. Beyond its financial contributions, SMO provides important strategic support to our local communities in times of emergencies (fires, earthquakes). It seems foolish to lose this useful and valuable asset, which requires no major investment or maintenance expense by the City.
Most of us are aware of significant advances that have been made with the development of electrically powered aircraft. The introduction of such aircraft at SMO could represent an interesting business potential as well as mitigate local concerns regarding pollution and noise.
It seems shortsighted to rush into closing our airport for quixotic plans to build a very costly park of questionable benefit to the City. I have read that development costs, including expensive (and yet unmeasured) environmental cleanup, could be in the order of $1 billion. The “Grand Park” conjures up uncomfortable comparisons with the disastrous high-speed railroad project undertaken by our State – a project with huge cost overruns and without viable plans for completing it.
How will our expensive park project be paid for? Who will pay? Sound financial planning dictates that major development projects should not be undertaken without first having a well-based financing plan in place. We have heard a lot of talk about building a big beautiful park but have heard nothing about how it will be financed. And please don’t tell us later that property owners will be slammed with the burdens of bond issues to help pay for this out-of-proportion project.
Who will use this park? How much will ongoing maintenance cost and who will pay? The “Grand Park” will be located on a remote corner of Santa Monica, closer to Mar Vista and other neighboring communities than to most Santa Monica residents. Will we in Santa Monica be foolishly incurring enormous costs for the benefit of other communities? Will the park become a magnet for attracting more homeless to our city? How can we keep such a huge park clean and safe when we cannot even keep our small local parks free of homeless and open drug use?
I fear that our City is on a dangerous slippery slope that will drag us all into a ruinous situation. How did we get this far with plans for such a huge project of questionable financial viability? Irrational exuberance seems to have overtaken common sense among the “Grand Park” project’s supporters.
Please reconsider the airport conversion plan and leave our airport operational, at least for now. Give it a chance to continue serving our communities’ emergency needs and to serve as a base for future air transport innovation.
Faustino Garza
Santa Monica