BOARD REQUESTS EXPLANATION FROM LAWA ON FUTURE OF PALMDALE AIRPORT PROPERTY

 

 

 

 

PRESS RELEASE

Contact:  Tony Bell, Communications Deputy    Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich Office:  (213) 974-5555   Cell: (213) 215-5176    E-mail:  tbell@bos.lacounty.gov

 

 

 

   December 16, 2008                                                                                                  For Immediate Release

 

BOARD REQUESTS EXPLANATION FROM LAWA

ON FUTURE OF PALMDALE AIRPORT PROPERTY  

 

LOS ANGELES COUNTY – The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a motion by Supervisors Michael D. Antonovich and Don Knabe that directed the County’s Chief Executive Officer to formally request that Los Angeles World Airports, the Airport Commission, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa explain their plans for the 17,000 acres of undeveloped property the City acquired 40 years ago through eminent domain for an airport.

 

“This vital property is not being utilized as the City of Los Angeles promised when it took private property through eminent domain,” said Antonovich.  “It is time to build the airport or return it to the original property owners.”  

 

“For four decades, this land has been sitting vacant, not being used for the development of a critically-needed regional commercial airport, which was the intended use of this land,” said Knabe. “Today’s action will hopefully get us some answers about how this vital facility will be used for truly regionalizing commercial air traffic.”

 

In the 1960s, the Los Angeles City Airport Commission acquired Ontario Airport, the 17,000-acre Palmdale airport site, and later contracted with the United States Air Force for Palmdale’s Plant 42’s runway and air terminal, for a regional airport network to meet future population needs.  To date, the City’s Los Angeles World Airports Department has failed to develop this property. 

 

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