Stage
Set for City, FAA Showdown |
By Jorge Casuso
March 24 – The City Council and Federal aviation
officials are expected to face off Tuesday night over dueling proposals
to enhance safety at Santa Monica Airport, but Washington must literally
give some ground if the plan is to fly, City officials said.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will present an alternative the agency
says will “greatly enhance safety” by installing a concrete arresting
system that slows down aircraft travelling at 70 knots, compared to 40 knots
under the FAA’s previous proposal.
But the City, which hopes to establish firmer ground to fight a lawsuit threatened
by the agency, says the a 250 foot bed with a 25 foot lead-in would only protect
residents near one end of the runway. They also note that the plan would be
only capable of stopping two of the seven large aircraft analyzed under the
plan.
“It’s closer, but it’s not what we asked,” said Martin
Tachiki, a deputy City attorney who represents the City on airport issues.
Friends of Sunset Park (FSOP), which represents residents who live
near the airport, voted to oppose “any ‘safety’
proposal. . . that does not protect residents living near the east
of the runway.”
“These are people’s lives we’re dealing with,” the
board wrote in a letter to the council Monday. “It’s not just a
matter of percentages.
“Everyone has been living under a cloud of imminent disaster while the
FAA has dawdled, delayed, decided what’s ‘practicable,’ and
seemingly done its darnedest to protect aviation interests and increase airport
capacity at the expense of residents’ safety.”
Council members, who in November approved the first reading of an ordinance
that calls for 1,000-foot safety areas at both ends of the runway, will give
Kirk Shaffer, FAA associate administrator for airports, the opportunity to testify
in person before voting on whether to approve the ordinance on second reading.
“We’re hoping that when he shows up on Tuesday, he has other options,”
Tachiki said.
Before the City Council meeting Shaffer is scheduled to meet with Congresswoman
Jane Harman and LA City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, whose districts border the
airport, and with activists from Concerned Residents Against Airport Pollution
(CRAAP), according to the group.
The ordinance the council unanimously approved on first reading in November
bans C and D aircraft with approach speeds faster than 121 knots. Federal standards
for C and D aircraft are 1,000-foot runway safety areas at both ends of a runway,
airport officials said.
The combined runway safety area and EMAS bed, at 130 feet with a 25-foot runway
end setback, that the FAA originally proposed did not meet the federal government’s
published standards and will not catch any aircraft careening at speeds more
than 40 knots, officials said.
The vote came after fives years of negotiations with the FAA, which opposes
City proposals to shorten the runway and add safety areas at either end that
abide by current federal standards.
City officials and residents who live near the airport worry that soaring jet
traffic -- from 4,829 jet operations in 1994 to 18,100 last year
-- is putting neighboring homes, as well as pilots, in danger.
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