Has A Goal Of Closing The Field By 2018

A resolution considered Monday night by the Santa Monica City Council would make it a policy of the city to close the airport to aviation uses "as soon as legally permitted", with a goal of ending aviation operations there by 2018.

The executive summary of the resolution posted on the city's website states:

"The passage of Measure Local Control (Measure LC) in November 2014 and the subsequent expiration of the City’s 30 year agreement with the FAA to continue to operate the Airport as well as the disputed expiration of the 20 year Grant Assurances in 2015 have set the stage for the City of Santa Monica to definitively re-exert local control over 227 acres of land owned by the City for more than a century.  During that time, it was the site for the making of aviation history and performed a vital function in peace and war.  In recent years, however, an airport originally established for biplanes has become an ever-more- active jetport for personal and corporate jet traffic.  The adverse impacts of noise, pollution and safety hazards of Airport operation have long been documented.  At the unanimous direction of the City Council, the staff recommends adopting a Resolution and policy to move forward decisively to exert and test our local authority by officially asserting the City’s intention to close the Airport as soon as legally permitted with the goal of doing so by June 30, 2018 or sooner if possible.

Acknowledging the many legal challenges regarding that authority now pending, the City should continue to exercise its legitimate authority to enforce its recently adopted leasing policy; replace the existing FBOs with exclusive City operations; consider removal of the Western Parcel from aviation use; and take other such steps for an orderly transition as are appropriately within its legal jurisdiction.

Finally, the Council expressed a commitment to initiate the lengthy and complex process of planning and environmental review for transition to a complete park campus containing uses consistent with the terms of Measure LC.  The recommended resolution authorizes the commencement of that future planning to establish and fund an array of natural, recreational and cultural resources and amenities to serve the residents and neighbors of the City of Santa Monica for generations to come. "

The city says that closing the airport is a matter of "local control and property rights. The Federal Government is not a local land use regulator, thus, FAA does not have jurisdiction over land use decisions in Santa Monica.  Using its municipal powers, including its property rights and land use authority in 1926, the City created an airfield and park and in 1941 leased the land to the Federal Government during a time of national emergency.  Now after 90 years of transformative change, if the City Council determines that the negative environmental impacts of airport operations outweigh the benefits that SMO provides, the City has the sole authority, as the property owner and as the land use regulator, to make that decision, not the FAA," the city contends.

The city recommends that it should begin a park-planning process for use of the land after the airport is closed, and it also recommends that an investigation be conducted to determine if "certain fractional jet operators are impermissibly operating as scheduled airlines."

(Images from file)

FMI: Full Agenda Item