Samo Airport expected to shutdown by 2018
On August 23, after years of discussion and conflict, Santa Monica City Council dramatically resolved to shut down the Santa Monica Airport by 2018. The airport has been around since the 1920’s and is one of the cities most disputed landmarks. Asking a citizen who doesn't own a private jet will most likely elicit a negative response. Some citizens even sued the city over the noise, and others complained about various health problems the airport causes.During the deciding meeting, not surprisingly, the airport received much pushback. Nearby residents complained of the non-stop barrage of sound. Multiple health groups protested that the airport spread unwanted pollution throughout the city and on top of all the issues stood the fact that the airport stood largely only to serve the 1% who could afford travel by private jet."Noise is a problem for many, but the real issues that make the airport no longer acceptable are safety and air pollution.” said City Council member Kevin Mckeown. “An air quality study six years ago showed pollution in the neighborhood surrounding the airport is twelve to seventeen times as intense as it was when the airport was closed for a few days to allow runway repairs.”Despite this, there were a surprising amount of people against the closure of the controversial airport. Many of those in opposition expressed fears of developers swooping in and turning the area of town into another tourist attraction.But to the council's collective dismay there is one slight thing standing in their way, the FAA, who have claimed that residents have lost all rights to the land the airport sits upon and that the council must keep it open until 2023 due to agreements made during World War II.That, however, was not enough to budge the determined minds of the council members who believed that based on an agreement made in 1994, the city's obligations to the FAA ended back in 2015. Current City Council member and former mayor Kevin McKeown has taken this issue to court to contest the FAAs claims upon the land and subsequently the airport.“The FAA is in the business of keeping airports open, so they claim we gave up all our rights to the land in World War II, and that a delayed payment of a 1994 grant for airport improvements counts as a new grant and obligates us until 2023,” McKeown said. “We disagree with both assertions, and the FAA has run out the clock on internal administrative hearings which they controlled. We will now take our claim for our own land to an impartial court, where we expect to prevail.”A ballot measure passed overwhelmingly by Santa Monica voters in 2014 limits new use of the land to recreational, cultural, and educational purposes. City council plans to fulfill all these goals if there claim passes through court and fill the the lands where the airport is with parks and office buildings.“Closing the airport permanently will allow conversion of over 200 acres we already own into parkland, which was the purpose for which Santa Monica Residents originally bought it in 1926.” said Mckeown. "We look forward to turning the current airport into something that serves many more people than pilots and business jet passengers."