By Laura Silagi
March 25, 2014, at the Santa Monica City Council meeting on the Santa Monica Airport (SMO) both Councilman Mike Bonin and Senator Ted Lieu called for SMO to be closed.

Venice Neighborhood Council’s SMO representative spoke about the unfair treatment of the City of Santa Monica toward the citizens of Los Angeles, especially about the Santa Monica City’s “Fly Neighborly Program” that “Highly Recommends” prop planes, which burn leaded fuel, to turn south over Venice on take-off, and then east over Mar Vista, a policy that the FAA told us in a meeting, is solely a Santa Monica policy.

Santa Monica has also fought the FAA to keep the flight departure path of jets over Venice, sending noise and toxins down on us. The present Venice departure path intersects with LAX traffic over the ocean. These jets wait for a clearance to depart, a coordinated effort between LAX and SMO towers. Jets departing SMO frequently have to idle for quite a while during which time they spew toxins and noise into the neighbors east of the airport. (There have been studies by UCLA scientists about the huge increase in ultra-fine particles and black carbon from combusting jet fuel in that neighborhood.) If jets departed to the north (over Santa Monica) there would be no intersection of the flight path with LAX thus lessening the wait time for jets on the tarmac. Santa Monica continues to use Venice as a dumping ground for noise and toxins.

Despite these important issues, there is good news from the meeting. Here is a report from CASMAT, a Santa Monica group.

At City Council meeting the Council unanimously approved staff’s recommendations while modifying them to clarify Council’s intent, and while explicitly making clear that any land released from aviation uses would be used for low intensity uses such as a park. Recommendations included the following:

• Consider and comment on the information provided in this report and by members of the public.

• Continue to pursue City control of the use of its Airport land.

• Direct staff to begin positioning the City for possible closure of all or part of the Santa Monica Airport (“Airport”) after July 1, 2015, including, for instance, by preparing a preliminary conceptual plan for a smaller airport that excludes the Airport’s western parcel and by preparing preliminary work plans for environmental assessment.

• Direct staff to continue to identify and undertake efforts by which the City might reduce adverse impacts of Airport operations, such as zoning the Airport land to require uses compatible with surrounding uses.

• Direct staff to increase efforts to ensure that the use of Airport leaseholds is compatible with surrounding uses by, for instance, notifying flight schools that flight school leases will be conditioned or will not be renewed after July 1, 2015 and evaluating whether and how fuel sales should be prohibited or limited to curtail adverse environmental impacts. – This recommendation was changed by Council – see below.

• Revise leasing policies to maintain lease revenues so that the Airport does not again burden the General Fund by authorizing the City Manager to negotiate and execute five-year non-aviation leases with five 1-year options to renew for up to a total of ten years and one-year aviation leases with two 1-year options to renew for up to a total of three years with any renewals at the City’s sole discretion. – This recommendation what changed by Council – see below.

• Continue to receive and assess community input on preferences and possibilities for the potential future use of the land.

One key modification made by council included directing staff to repay the disputed grant assurance money (around $250,000) to the FAA, thereby ending the dispute over the end date of this agreement which the FAA contends extends to 2023 but which the City believes ends this year. This action also sends a clear message of intent regarding the airport’s future.

Another key modification was to direct staff to replace their suggested leasing policy with a standard City non-discriminatory policy designed for “light industrial and arts space”. This change, recommended by the airport commission, ensures the City cannot be sued for discrimination, while also putting in place a mechanism for disallowing uses incompatible with the surrounding neighborhoods particularly those that cause noise, pollution, or other negative impacts – exactly the kinds of things that current aviation activity represents. This leasing policy must be in place before any leases are renewed.

Thanks go to City staff, to all the Council members present, to the volunteers that continue to work so hard towards this goal, and to all the members of the public that stayed so long into the night and spoke so eloquently.

This is a big step forward towards a great park on airport land. We should all celebrate what happened last night, and though there is still a long path to tread, we will not stop until we have reached our goal.

By Laura Silagi

Venice Stakeholders-
We have an opportunity to be heard by the Santa Monica City Council on Wednesday, March 25th at 6:30 pm at their next City Council meeting. It will be at Santa Monica City Hall, 1685 Main Street, Santa Monica CA 90401.

This meeting will discuss the future of the Santa Monica airport. Let them hear how the airport impacts your life and what you want them to do about it. If you can’t come, please e-mail the council atcouncil@smgov.net with your opinion – every e-mail counts!

A meeting will be held Thursday, 3 October 6 to 9 pm at 1343 Ocean Park Blvd, Santa Monica.

In July 2015, the City of Santa Monica’s 1984 agreement with the FAA expires.

“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to re-purpose an enormous and unique land parcel as our largest park,” wrote Laura Silagi.

Come join neighbors to imagine what this park could be! Let’s build a park! Think about these: sports fields for all ages, trails for hiking, jogging, and cycling, playgrounds for children, activities for seniors, artworks and cultural facilities, natural habitat, gardens and quiet places.

By Chris Williams of Penmar Park area

I am NOT a pilot and do not own a plane.  I think there should be some clarification on Laura Silagi’s remarks.  Ms. Silagi has worked for years to remove Santa Monica Airport.

If as stated at the meeting by Dr. Richard Jackson, Chair of the UCLA Environmental Health Sciences, “Land use is a health issue”, then how large would the health issues be to the overall community if Santa Monica got their way and redeveloped Santa Monica Airport into the Century City type development they have desired to build there for decades. That would result in thousands more people accessing and living in this area. What would be the overall health result with thousands more vehicles and people brought into this area? What would be the stress level on our community from the increase in traffic and density?

We are already almost at gridlock.  Now if Santa Monica decided to turn the entire property into a regional park that could be a positive step. But that isn’t going to happen.  Other areas regional parks such as in Orange County are now being planned for massive redevelopments.  As of now there are 4 votes on the Santa Monica City Council that would vote in a heartbeat to fully develop the airport. Others state they will vote to keep the airport to prevent the alternative.

Love it or hate it Santa Monica Airport sits on bedrock. It is projected to be the only functioning airport in the region, not just the city, after the so-called big one earthquake hits. Remember, the majority of our Police and Fire Dept. resources live in other localities outside of Los Angeles and most assuredly outside of the Westside. They will need to be ferried in and out, injured and hospitalized neighbors will need to be evacuated and food and water will need to be delivered to our community.

Santa Monica Airport will be our lifeline in that type of disaster. LAX because of its underlying geology, underground fuel pipelines and storage tanks is projected to fail in the big one. So are other airports in the LA basin by nature of their underlying geology as well.

In listening to the UCLA students who did a limited lead study, they stated they found no, repeat no, elevated lead in any of the areas tested west of the airport. I couldn’t hear them as far as the properties east of the airport, and the elevated lead levels mentioned were found on airport property exactly where one would expect to finds them after use of leaded fuels for piston aircraft in use for the last 80 odd years.

Let us remember SM airport used to be the home of Douglas Aircraft whose planes used to use significantly higher lead content fuels in much larger quantities than today’s small planes.  Jet aircraft do not use leaded fuels but have their own issues with the soot and partially burned fuels they generate while their engines are in a full rich condition idling and on takeoff.

Are there improvements that can be done at Santa Monica Airport, yes, absolutely?  The primary runway 21 points to a direction where the airport traffic follows a straight line that goes over Santa Monica  The traffic should go over Santa Monica particularly the noisy ones,  the jets. They receive the monetary benefits of the airport and they should receive any liabilities associated with it.

In the alternative the FAA a couple of years ago tried a fanning effect of smaller aircraft being fanned out to lighten the amount over any one area.  The jets however should go over Santa Monica exclusively. There should be more noise monitors place in Venice for the planes that throttle up too soon and noisily impact Venice.  At the east end of the airport jets waiting for clearance to depart sit and idle their engines producing a stench like a hundred barbeques lighting up.  That needs to be addressed and there are solutions that can be implemented.   The flight schools can be addressed as well. There are solutions beyond what is currently being expressed.

I came away dismayed the VNC’s Airport Committee failure to look comprehensively at all the impacts of the airport both negative and positive. I found some of the Airport Committee’s presentation misleading, or at the least lacking balance. It felt clearly orchestrated a fete-accompli.

The bottom line for our Penmar Community and indeed our surrounding communities is: We must consider wisely and not rush irrationally into something that may be substantially worse for us while generating our neighbor city billions in new revenues.

By Laura Silagi of Penmar Park area

This is in relation to the forum held 27 April 2013 at SM airport

The Venice Neighborhood Council (VNC) Santa Monica Airport Community Forum held a two- part program on September 27th. The first was dedicated to health impacts and the second to our representatives talking about what they could do to help. This is a quick summary. Channel 35 recorded the event and we will send the link to that program when it is available.

Quoting Dr. Richard Jackson, Chair of the UCLA Environmental Health Sciences, “Land use is a health issue.”

Aircraft noise elevates blood pressure leads to psychological distress and learned helplessness. It is especially detrimental to children’s ability to learn. For every 5 decibels above the ambient noise level, children fall 2 months behind in reading. Their memory is affected as well as their ability to concentrate. There are more impacts and we will send a link when we put that talk together. We have thousands of children in the flight pattern.

Ultra-fine particles from jets idling, taking off and landing penetrate deep into the body causing increased blockage of blood vessels, and greater lung inflammation, stunting lung growth in developing children. This lung impairment lasts a lifetime.

Prop planes use leaded fuel and the areas tested near the airport have 2 to 4 times higher lead levels than is normal. Lead causes behavioral changes, loss of developmental skills, attention problems, reduced IQ, and the list goes on.  Lead is highly toxic and cumulative.  The Centers for Disease control says there is no safe level for lead.

The inequity in the airport’s flight pattern, its impacts over Los Angeles neighborhoods and the imbalance in terms of who benefits from the airport were concerns of the audience. Quoting economist Andrea Campbell, “The airport is, what is called a “market failure.” The externalities, i.e. pollution, is not being paid for fairly by the beneficiaries of the airport and indeed, there is no value that can be placed on these externalities. Since there is no dollar amount that can be placed on the health and suffering of those on the ground, it should be closed.”

We learned that both our current Los Angeles city attorney, Carmen Trutanich and his opponent in the upcoming election, Mike Feuer have ideas, both legal and political, to stop the Santa Monica “Fly Neighborly” program which shunts prop planes over Venice and Mar Vista. Mr. Trutanich had more specific legal ideas, and Mr. Feuer stressed talks with Santa Monica City officials.

We learned that our councilman-elect, Mike Bonin is committed to closing the airport, and has a twofold approach. First, to work politically with Santa Monica not to renew the 1984 agreement, and second, to ask the  Los Angeles city attorney to file a lawsuit against Santa Monica if it does renew the 1984 agreement or aviation leases. He is also committed to ending the Santa Monica’s “Fly Neighborly” program.

We learned that Ted Lieu, our state senator is looking for ways the state can help end the pollution from SMO, such as sponsoring a bill to involve CEQA in airport renewals.Our US Representative Henry Waxman committed publicly, in front of 200 people and the news media, to support the closure of the airport if that is what his constituents want. 

We know that the majority of those affected by the airport in Venice and Santa Monica want his p to do just that.  We know this airport and neighborhoods surrounding it are incompatible. 

Terrible spelling errors in Laura Silagi’s comments last Update regarding the Santa Monica Airport Forum at Penmar Park, April 27, 1-4 pm. Apparently, spell check was allowed to go wild in her comments. Who would misspell Silagi? We all know that is a common Irish name. And that was just the beginning of the misspellings.  

Linda Lucks, president of the Venice Neighborhood Council, reminded Update that the Santa Monica Airport Forum is sponsored by the Venice Neighborhood Council. 

Laura Silagi Comments Again

There will be a Santa Monica Airport Forum at Penmar Park on April 27th from 1 to 4p.m. The purpose of this forum will be to let people know the health effects of the airport to those on the ground as reported by researchers from UCLA, and to hear the ideas of our elected representatives to mitigate problems caused by the airport. We have Carmen Trutanich, Mike Feuer, Henry Waxman, Bill Rosendahl, Ted Lieu, Mike Bonin coming as well as David Goddard, the chairman of the Santa Monica Airport Commission. We have invited Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti, and are waiting to hear if they are available. And there will be time devoted to hearing action ideas from those attending.