Pilots Sue to Block Torrance Development

A group of pilots has sued the city of Torrance, charging that city officials ignored state land-use laws when they gave permission for construction of 52 new homes and an office building under the departure pattern for Torrance Municipal Airport.

The suit, filed in Torrance Superior Court by the 1,600-member California Aviation Council and the Torrance Airport Assn., asks that a judge block the city from issuing building permits for the former Meadow Park Elementary School site until the city submits the project for county review.

Local pilots said at a press conference Tuesday that they were not aware of the Meadow Park project until grading began this summer. Residents living near the project, which is surrounded on three sides by homes, opposed initial plans to build condominiums on the site. After more than two years of debate, the City Council approved the construction of 52 homes and a 43,000-square-foot office building.

At the press conference, held next to the site at the corner of Lomita Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, attorney Scott Raphael, Aviation Council director Walter Lull and three representatives from Torrance airport groups said planes flying over the site make it too dangerous and too loud for residential or office construction.

City noise regulations require most aircraft taking off from Torrance airport, which lies within 3,900 feet of the Meadow Park site, to make a 45-degree turn directly over the site.

Noting that 60% of all general aviation accidents take place within one mile of a runway, Raphael said the Meadow Park site is at even greater risk because planes are both turning and ascending as they pass over it.

“The most likely area for an accident to take place is right here where we’re standing,” he said. “Where are the politicians going to be if a plane crashes here in five years and kills 50 people?”

A secretary at Val-Co Enterprises said developer Arthur Valdez was in Australia this week and could not be reached for comment.

City Atty. Kenneth Nelson said he could not comment on the suit, which names all seven City Council members, until he has had a chance to review it.

According to the lawsuit, state law requires Torrance to submit any project planned within a mile of the airport for review by a county airport land-use planning commission.

Torrance did not do so, planning director David Ferren said, adding that city officials are not familiar with the law.

Ferren noted that airport noise problems already were taken into consideration when an environmental impact report was completed for Valdez’s initial proposal--a 174-unit condominium development.

The council ultimately required Valdez to include several soundproofing measures when he builds the houses, including double-paned window glass and thick insulation.

Under the state law, however, the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission is designated as the correct agency for reviewing projects near airports.

But John Huttinger, the commission’s assistant administrator for community planning, said vague wording in the law could be interpreted as exempting Los Angeles altogether.

His commission has been waiting for a ruling from the county counsel’s office before agreeing to take on the airport cases.

No city in the county has ever approached the commission for review, he said.

“Everyone agrees that the thing is poorly written,” Huttinger said.

He said the Legislature approved an amendment to the law two months ago that may help resolve much of the confusion surrounding how it is to be implemented.

The amendment also may nullify the aviation council’s suit, Huttinger said, because it sets a June 30, 1991, deadline for counties to create airport land-use plans and orders all suits stemming from the law postponed until that time.

“The point is they’re going to be jeopardizing people by putting homes here,” Torrance Area Pilots Assn. President Ted Stinis said. “An industrial use, anything with a parking lot that you can plop the airplane in without killing people, is more appropriate.”

Council members expressed disgust with the lawsuit, saying it was nothing more than an attempt to harass the city.

“They weren’t discussing anything about planes dropping out of the sky when it was still a school site, with hundreds of kids running around,” Councilman Dan Walker said. “I think this is just stupid. That’s the best way of putting it.”

Councilman George Nakano said he thinks the lawsuit could backfire on the pilots.

“I don’t know if they’re looking for a death wish, but what they’re doing is giving rise to those people who are advocating closure of the airport,” Nakano said, adding that at present he does not favor shutting down the facility.

“Why should a city be subjected to this kind of harassment time after time by people who live outside of the city? We could stop this by closing the airport, and I’m sure those people who are advocating the closure would say this.”