Torrance to Move Ahead With General Aviation Center Plans

To the relief of area pilots, the city of Torrance decided Tuesday to move ahead with plans for the long-delayed general aviation center at Torrance Municipal Airport.

The City Council, voting 7-0, authorized negotiations with a new architect to continue the design of the proposed $1.5-million building north of Airport Drive.

The project came to a standstill last October when council members, angered by a pilots’ lawsuit that has since been withdrawn, put planning on hold and talked publicly of closing the city-owned airfield. The suit, filed by the California Aviation Council and the Torrance Airport Assn., had sought to block development of homes near the airport.

After Tuesday’s vote, a spokesman for a pilots’ group praised the city’s decision to move ahead.

“It’s a ray of hope, certainly, to the users of the airport,” said Barry Jay, president of the Torrance Airport Boosters Assn., which was not involved in the suit.

In an interview Wednesday, Mayor Katy Geissert cited two factors that have changed since the October standoff: the withdrawal of the pilots’ lawsuit and pending state legislation that she says could help keep airport land-use powers in the hands of local government.

“It’s quite a different situation,” Geissert said.

Asked whether the vote reflected a commitment to keep the airport open, Geissert said: “It can be read as a commitment to proceed with the implementation of the master plan” for long-term airport improvements.

She added, “My own perspective is, we will maintain the airport as long as we are able to keep local control over operations.”

The 9,861-square-foot general aviation center is to include a pilots’ lounge, a community meeting room and administration offices for airport and noise abatement operations. It is to be built near the airport control tower.

The council authorized negotiating a contract with the San Pedro firm of BOA Architecture to continue architectural work on the project.

Earlier architectural plans were drawn up by H. Wendell Mounce & Associates, and construction was to have been completed by early 1991. But the project had to be redesigned after Mounce’s firm submitted initial plans for a building that would have cost $400,000 more than authorized.

Then, last October, the council voted to terminate the city’s agreement with Mounce. Amid discussion of the pilots’ suit, the council also rejected a staff recommendation to hire BOA Architecture, thus leaving the project in limbo. The suit had sought to block the city from issuing building permits for 52 homes and an office building at the former Meadow Park Elementary School site until the city complied with state laws governing airport land use.

The aviation council argued that the city had failed to study whether the Meadow Park project, at Lomita Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, should be built under the primary takeoff pattern for the airport.

Council members countered that in light of such allegations about the dangers of airport-area development, perhaps the airport should be closed. Geissert said then that until the suit was resolved, she would not be willing to invest more money in improving the airport.

Meanwhile, Sen. Robert G. Beverly (R-Manhattan Beach) introduced a bill at the request of Torrance officials that would exempt cities in Los Angeles County from a newly strengthened law intended to control growth around airports.

Torrance and a number of other cities argued that their land-use planning powers were being eroded.

The Beverly bill passed the state Senate this month and will be heard Aug. 8 by the Assembly Local Government Committee.

Scott D. Raphael, who represented the California Aviation Council in the lawsuit, said he was pleased to hear that planning has resumed for the general aviation center. He said that relations appear to have improved between the city and the pilots, and he speculated that the lawsuit may have played a part.

“I think it forced everybody to come together and come to grips with this issue,” Raphael said. “In the process, each of the parties learned something from each other.”

The city hopes to go to bid on the project next spring, and it could be constructed by spring 1992, said Philip Tilden, city management programs administrator. About 15% of the architectural work has been done, Tilden said.