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# City prevails in lawsuit levied by airport association
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/see-memorial-page-8-see-investigation-page-4-city-prevails-in-lawsuit-levied-by-airport-association/
- Published: 2003-07-23T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:37:12.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica Airport, #archive-import

*Supporters worry local airport may close in 2015*

Santa Monica City Hall has won a lawsuit that was levied by a group of pilots who accused it of illegally operating the airport.

The Santa Monica Airport Association, a non-profit group consisting of pilots and others concerned with the airport, claims that City Hall has failed to provide enough airplane parking spaces, refuses to grant long-term leases to aviation companies and is overzealous in giving fines to pilots who violate noise laws.

The association filed the 400-page suit against City Hall in November of 1999\. More than three years later and hundreds of thousands of dollars in litigation, City Hall prevailed last Wednesday.

Malibu Superior Court Judge Cesar Sarmiento ruled in favor of City Hall on all but one of the 25 complaints in the lawsuit.

Association members said they plan to file an appeal within the next 60 days.

“Honestly, I’m shocked beyond comprehension,” said Lloyd Kirschbaum, attorney for the association. “In our opinion, it wasn’t even a close call.”

Since the lawsuit was filed, association president Jim Barton estimates the nonprofit group has spent more than $150,000 in legal fees.

City Hall has spent more than $500,000 defending the case, said Bob Trimborn, the airport’s manager.

At the heart of the lawsuit is the 1984 agreement, which is a contract between the city and the Federal Aviation Association that outlines how the airport should operate.

One of the association’s complaints is how the city’s noise abatement program is managed. In November of 1999, the City Council raised the fee structure for noise violations at Santa Monica Airport. Violators who exceed the 95 decibel threshold can be fined as much as $10,000 and can even be barred from using the airport.

Santa Monica Airport has some of the strictest noise laws in the country, largely because in some areas there are homes within 200 feet of the runway, said Santa Monica Deputy City Attorney Martin Tachiki.

The city issued 375 noise violations in 2002, down more than 30 percent from 2001\. But association members accused the airport of issuing citations too freely. Kirschbaum said City Hall handed out violations for aircraft operating at 95.1 decibels, when the machines that gauge noise levels have a margin of error of one half of a decibel.

“No one knows and no one can ever know (if those pilots were breaking the law),” he said Tuesday. “It’s analogous to getting a speeding ticket for going 55.1 miles per hour. Yeah, you are technically over the speed limit, but there is no odometer that exists that can exactly measure you.”

Tachiki said the city’s system, which is set up 1,500 feet from the runway, is accurate enough to gauge when a pilot exceeds the 95 decibel level.

The one issue Judge Sarmiento sided with the association on deals with lease guidelines at the airport. The 1984 agreement requires that fixed base operators at the airport be given the opportunity to continue their businesses for the long-term, giving the owners a chance to make a profit.

However, Santa Monica Air Center and Kreuger Aviation, which both operate at the airport, have been on month-to-month leases for more than 20 years. City Hall argued the businesses are not entitled to extended leases because they are located on land outside of the official airport layout.

Judge Sarmiento disagreed. “If the city did not want them in the present locations, any lease, whether month-to-month or long-term, should not have been provided,” he wrote in his ruling. “But having entered into the leases, the city was required to (offer the longer leases).”

Association members also argued that the city does not keep the required 590 airplane parking spaces. Barton said the association is worried that plans for a soccer field and other park facilities on the southeast portion of the 200-acre-plus airport might preclude the city from providing the spaces in the future.

After hearing conflicting testimony from experts on both sides of the issue, Judge Sarmiento ruled in favor of the city, finding that there is ample space in airport hangars and on surrounding land that could be converted for parking purposes.

Overall, city officials are pleased with the ruling.

“It really is a relief,” Trimborn said. “It will allow us to focus on doing our job of running the airport and making the airport as compatible and safe as possible. It’s just unfortunate that we had to go through these three-plus years of litigation.”

Roughly 150,000 planes, jets and helicopters take off and land at Santa Monica Airport each year. But airport supporters worry that the small, $3 million annual operation may be threatened when the 1984 agreement expires in 2015\. City Hall in 1981 expressed interest in converting the land to other uses as soon as legally possible. In 1995, it stopped accepting federal grants because they require recipients to commit to 20 years of operation.

All indications point to 2015 as the soonest the city could convert the valuable westside property into another use.

“It’s something that City Councils in the years to come will have to deal with,” said Tachiki, adding that City Hall at this point is keeping its options open.

But fans of the historic airport, which was built in 1916, said they will fight to keep it open. The airport is designated as an air park and is open to the public.

“There is no question whatsoever that the city is going to try to close this airport in 2015,” said Kirschbaum, who also is a pilot. “That’s the 500-pound guerilla in the room that nobody wants to talk about.”

> “There is no question whatsoever that the city is going to try to close this airport in 2015\. That’s the 500-pound guerilla in the room that nobody wants to talk about.” — — LLOYD KIRSCHBAUM Aviation attorney and pilot

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/072303-04_01-7.jpg)

manager Bob Trimborn stands in front of the machine that gauges the decibel level of aircraft. (Photo: File photo Airport)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 23, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/072303.pdf?ref=smdp.com)