By Brian Bland Santa Monica
I’ve lived near the Santa Monica Airport as a renter and a homeowner for nearly three decades. I welcome Bill Worden’s letter about working together to improve the facility’s effect on its neighbors. That sure beats the simplistic “love it or leave it’‘ attitude embodied in the argument that “the airport was here before you were.’‘ Envision a residential street limited to cars and a few delivery trucks. Then the government opens the street to heavy trucks AND encourages them to use it. The result: Danger, pollution and noise. It would be ludicrous to tell protesting residents: “You knew it was a street when you moved there.’‘ “The airport’‘ is not a static 5,000-foot strip of concrete. It now has jet operations — 18,000 a year -— it was never physically designed for. Yet there are still no true buffer zones around it. There is no way that large, fuel-laden jets should be using a relatively short runway with no end buffers or overrun zones. It’s a disaster waiting to happen. Unfortunately, while residents (and Rep. Henry Waxman) have appealed to the FAA for years about the growing problems, the FAA has NOT wanted to work with us.
The city is constrained by its 1984 agreement with the FAA, which controls flight operations. Meantime, a chunk of the taxes you pay for a commercial airline ticket help support such so-called “general aviation’‘ operations that now rival that of a commercial airport. With an expanding LAX just eight miles away, there is no need for (or community benefit from) jet traffic at Santa Monica that has increased exponentially in the past 10 to 15 years.
The Santa Monica Airport Commission, on a 5-0 vote, recently made a reasonable, practical, recommendation for a buffer system that would provide a physical plane-capturing barrier at both ends of the runway and would effectively reduce the useable length of the runway. This would protect residents from an overrun and possibly decrease the number of jets, providing some relief from the fumes and noise that now engulf hundreds of homes and the children playing at the adjacent parks.
The City Councils of Santa Monica and L.A. should support this plan and push the FAA to approve it, through diplomacy if possible and legal action if necessary.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 30, 2007. Read the original PDF.