The final staff report to be presented at the April 30th City council meeting has been released and can be found here. Staff is recommending the adoption of a landing fee increase and the continued investigation of various means to further mitigate negative SMO impacts. Staff also recommends funding of a noise mitigation incentive program (initially mufflers) as originally proposed by CASMAT. CASMAT strongly supports these measures, and urges the City Council to adopt the staff plan. Although we may not agree with all statements made in this report, it is nonetheless an excellent first step, and a great start to addressing community concerns. Much still remains to be done – this is not the end, simply the beginning.
Once again, we encourage anyone interested in SMO’s future to come to the City Council meeting on the 30th starting at 6:30 PM at City Hall, City Council Chambers, 2nd floor City Hall, 1685 Main Street. Free street parking or validated in Civic Center Parking Structure opposite the Public Safety Building. Enter the parking structure from 4th St. & Civic Center Dr. (across from the Doubletree Hotel). The validation machine is in the little wall box in the hallway just outside the Council Chambers.
If you are unable to attend, you can listen or view the meeting on City TV http://www.smgov.net/Departments/ CityTV/content.aspx?id=4292 or on 89.9 KCRW (starts broadcasting the meeting in progress at 8 PM). If you haven’t watched it already, watch the video summary.
CASMAT congratulates Suzanne Paulson on her appointment at the April 23 City Council meeting to fill the vacant slot on the Airport Commission. Suzanne is the author of past studies on SMO environmental impacts and her expertise will be invaluable in the debate going forward. Suzanne holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering Science and is with the Department of Atmospheric and Ocean Science at UCLA.
At the April 22 Airport Commission meeting we witnessed a string of pilots and aviation advocates who were unwilling to start paying their way at the airport, believing they are entitled to extend their 29-year subsidized ride at SMO (since the 1984 agreement) at Santa Monica taxpayer’s expense. Having no real basis for their position, the main tactic was simply unjustified requests for delay, as if there had not in reality been ample notice. Shockingly however, the rhetoric extended on multiple occasions to making overt legal threats against airport commission members themselves should they support the staff plan to raise landing fees, a plan which the commission itself first recommended. Regrettably for the community, the result was a deadlocked vote on the fees by the commission. These kind of tactics should not be allowed to succeed, and we hope the Council itself will see them for what they are. We can anticipate a similar turnout at the April 30th City Council meeting.
CASMAT has been asked to publish the following announcements:
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@SMOSTINKS IS NOW ON TWITTER !
Twitter users can now get “daily tweets” about Santa Monica Airport issues.
All Twitter users should just FOLLOW: @smostinks
Non Twitter users can also read daily updates by logging on to: http://twitter.com/smostinks
@SMOSTINKS is an independent source of original and aggregated news dealing with Santa Monica Airport Traffic, Noise, Health, Safety, Pollution, and Sustainability issues.
Since just August of Last year, @SMOSTINKS has posted nearly 800 tweets alerting the community to important news regarding the Santa Monica Airport.
Keep informed – get involved – get active and TWEET !
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Santa Monica Airport Health Impacts Forum – Presented by Venice Neighborhood Council
Saturday April 27, 2013 from 1-4PM at the Pennmar Park Recreation Center, Community Room, 1341 Lake St, Venice.
Experts and politicians will be attending including:
Bill Rosendahl – LA City Councilmember
Ted Lieu – California Sentator for the 28th District
Henry Waxman – Congressman representing California’s 33rd Congressional District
UPDATE:Link to ABC news report
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