After more than four years and countless hours of hearings, study sessions and community meetings, the City Council voted to proceed with plans for terminal improvements for the Long Beach Airport.
I voted against it and I am disappointed in the final Council vote to expand the terminal size to 89,995 square feet, an increase from the current 58,320 square feet of temporary and permanent accommodations. Unfortunately, this motion passed 5-3, with Councilmembers Patrick O’Donnell and Tonia Reyes Uranga joining me in opposing this proposal.
However, I can look at another action the Council took last Tuesday and attribute it directly to the active participation and hard work of so many residents in our neighborhoods.
The Council unanimously approved a Green Airport and Neighborhood Protection Program that I authored with Councilmembers O’Donnell and Reyes Uranga.
Among the important components of these plans are:
• A policy to reduce pollution related to aircraft, ground equipment and vehicle transportation;
• Expanded air quality monitoring programs and supporting mitigation measures to reach AQMD air quality attainment levels;
• A program to install an additional six permanent noise monitors to ensure accurate noise impact readings for potential mitigation measures;
• Covenants incorporated into all Long Beach Airport leases to not challenge the City’s Airport Noise Compatibility Ordinance;
• Ensure sufficient funds to support a vigorous defense of any and all challenges to our Airport Noise Ordinance;
• Work with the FAA and pilots to establish approach and takeoff protocols to further reduce noise impacts to Long Beach neighborhoods; and
• A program compliance monitor appointed by the city manager who will report periodically to the City Council on the progress of the implementation.
Also, I can look at where we were only two years ago, when the Airport Advisory Commission recommended to the City Council to approve a plan that nearly tripled the size of the airport terminal to more than 133,000 square feet.
You made your voices heard and demonstrated to the Council how super-sizing the Long Beach Airport could invite a challenge to our noise ordinance that limits the number of daily flights.
I am grateful for the efforts of a group of residents who appealed the Environmental Impact Report to the Council, worked for nine months with city staff to negotiate key compromises from the original plan and educated the rest of the Council about the importance of these revisions.
As Mayor Bob Foster said, we still have a couple of additional “bites on this apple.” The most significant of which will be the financing plan, when we must determine how to pay for these improvements. The users of the airport must be responsible for the costs of these improvements, not the residents and taxpayers of Long Beach.
Stay tuned for this next chapter in the ongoing saga I affectionately call “Long Beach–On the Edge of Greatness.”
On another note, thank you to everyone who attended the Carson and Atlantic development meeting last week. We were introduced to the two new partners of the proposed Italian restaurant and wine bar, who displayed great enthusiasm for their plan to feature homemade pastas and authentic Italian dishes. They are targeting to open by the end of this year.
There were also many good suggestions for other retail and restaurants. We will be working with the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association and the city’s Economic Development Bureau to get further community involvement in improving our commercial corridors.
Finally, please join me this Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon for my regular Community Coffee. This month, I am pleased to have join us City Attorney Bob Shannon, City Auditor Laura Doud and representatives from Mayor Foster’s and Supervisor Don Knabe’s offices to answer any questions or concerns you may have. The meeting will take place at the Carmelitos Senior Center, located at 817 Via Carmelitos, Building 108.
Keep the spring in your step! Stay Involved!
–Rae Gabelich
