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What Say You? Closing
Santa Monica Airport
SUSAN CLOKE
Columnist
March 28, 2014
March 28, 2014
At the Council Meeting of March 25 a unanimous
City Council signaled its intent to direct the closing of Santa Monica Airport
(SMO) and to work to protect neighbors from noise and pollution impacts until
SMO can be closed.
McKeown/Vazquez moved the Staff Recommendation with
modifications including an offer to the FAA to repay the grant to extinguish
any lingering grant obligations. http://santamonica.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=3248
During the public comment at the Council meeting
assertions had been made that the City was closing SMO so they could build
“Century City West.” Council
Member McKeown called the statement a “canard.” And the McKeown/Vazquez motion directed that concept plans
and zoning focus on low intensity uses.
The City anticipates that the decision and
design process will be a public visioning process and the language of adopted motion
states, “Continue to receive and assess community input of preferences and
possibilities for the potential future use of the land.”
It was an hours long meeting with many speakers.
Speakers from the organization Airport2Park saw this as a once in a century
opportunity and called for using Airport lands for parks that serve all. http://airport2park.org/
People spoke representing neighborhood organizations
calling for the closure of the airport due to noise and pollution and public
health concerns. Santa Monica residents and residents from adjacent communities
spoke about noise, pollution and public health concerns. Scientists also expressing concern for
public health joined them.
Pilots and pilot’s organizations, aviation
related businesses and many Santa Monica residents spoke of the importance of
the Airport to the City, to the fact that the Airport provided emergency medical
transportation for patients in need, that it was an important alternative for
receiving help and supplies in case of earthquake. They also presented information on new technology and
innovations that would make the airport quieter and would reduce pollution and
health hazards. Other people spoke
of the educational and inspirational importance of the Airport to young people.
History
The history of SMO is one of excitement and
adventure, of the golden days of aviation. The Wright Brothers first flight, in North Carolina, was on
December 17, 1903. By 1917, even
before it was an airport, WWI biplanes used the Santa Monica field as informal
landing strip.
Donald Douglas formed the Douglas Aircraft Company
in 1922 and produced military and civilian aircraft. It 1923 the site was dedicated as Clover field by the Army
Air Corps, named after the WWI pilot Lt. Greayer Clover, who was killed in
action in the war.
Portions of the existing property were purchased
by the City with monies from a Park Bond measure in 1926. After that the Council changed the name
to Santa Monica Airport. (SMO)
The Airport first becomes famous when the Douglas World
Cruiser biplanes leave from SMO and circumnavigate the globe.
In 1929 SMO got the attention of the whole
country and the international aviation community with the race of woman
aviators from SMO to Cleveland. Among
the aviators flying in that race were Amelia Earhart and Pancho Barnes.
During WWII Douglas was a major defense
contractor with 44,000 workers.
The plant had three shifts, seven days a week. Sunset Park and other neighborhoods in Santa Monica were
built to provide housing for the new workers.
It was also during that period that the Federal
Government became involved with SMO to protect the war effort.
The first City/Federal Government Grant
Agreement was signed in1941. In
1948, with the War over, the City resumed operation of the Airport.
It wasn’t until the 1960’s that the first civilian
jets arrived at SMO. Neighboring
residents, infuriated by noise and pollution sued the City and the City adopted
a series of regulations to respond to resident concerns.
Airport controversy continued and by1974 the
City had established the “Airport Neighbors Forum.” Based on the Forum’s recommendations the City adopted
ordinances designed to protect the neighborhoods from noise and other impacts.
With continuing controversy and after additional
litigation the City entered into the Santa Monica Airport Agreement (1984) obligating
the City to operate the Airport through 2015. That agreement recognized the City’s authority to mitigate
aircraft impacts through noise limits, curfews, a helicopter ban, and pattern
flying restrictions.
The Present.
The Staff report states: “For years, community members assumed
that the City could close the Airport in 2015 when the 1984 agreement with the
federal government will expire.
“However it is now clear that legal disputes
about the City’s authority to close the Airport will inevitably extend well
beyond 2015, and their outcome is uncertain. And, beyond the legal controversies, some level of
environmental assessment would likely be required to close all or part of the
Airport ant that would take time.” http://www.smgov.net/departments/Council/agendas/2014/20140325/s2014032508-A.htm
The Future.
Looking at the bigger picture of aviation, the
one that affects everyone, not just Santa Monica, all of aviation has
changed.
Gone are the romance and adventure and
exhilaration of flying. Once
Americans put on their best clothes and sat in comfortable seats on airplanes
where all passengers were ‘first class.’
On long flights ‘real food’ was served on china plates. There were no security lines and family
and friends walked with travelers across the tarmac and waved good-bye as
people boarded the plane. Now we
only know about those days from old movies.
SMO was wonderful for Santa Monica. It helped to grow the City. It provided employment, revenue, innovation,
and civic pride.
The Santa Monica of today is still a place of
innovation and creativity and civic pride. The challenges before us now are different. The challenges are ones of
sustainability and stewardship and protection of the environment.
The questions now are how to continue the ethos
of innovation and creativity and be the protectors and stewards of
sustainability and the environment.
It will be a Santa Monica responsibility to
decide the future of the airport land.
Of equal importance, it will be a Santa Monica responsibility to
determine the process of decision-making.
That process, the visioning of the future of the
airport lands, needs to meet the criteria of environmental stewardship, public
protection and creativity and innovation.
Imagine an inclusive process, one inviting everyone to the table and
searching for ways to come to agreement on how to use this unique public land
for the benefit of all Santa Monica.
What Say You?
