During the last City Council Meeting, Rachel Kwok, Environmental Planner with the City Planning Division and Lindsay Call, Chief Resilience Officer, gave a chilling account of the potential disasters the City of Santa Monica must be mindful of. In addition to the longstanding threat of earthquakes, climate change has given us all a great deal to think about and prepare for, including sea level rise, flooding, landslides, extreme heat and of course, wildfires.
Santa Monica Airport (SMO) is set to close on December 31, 2028, as outlined in a 2017 federal consent decree and an ongoing campaign exists to convince elected officials to turn the space into a “great park.” The City has gone to great lengths in numerous community outreach events to research what sort of uses the residents of Sunset Park and the Pico neighborhood want to see the land put to. However, very few – if any – of the options included an opportunity for the group of people who still maintain that the airport is a valuable resource, to offer their opinion.
Moreover, the somewhat predictable spectre of residential development has hinted at its presence twice in the last two City Council meetings. During the January 28 meeting, there was a Study Session Item that specifically looked at different land use scenarios and their potential impact.
Housing was raised a number of times through the course of the discussion by numerous members of council including Councilmember Jess Zwick who said it should be an option and Councilwoman Natalya Zernitskaya who agreed, saying, “I think housing should be considered for at least one of the other scenarios.”
Then, during the aforementioned introduction and first reading of the amended Safety Element of City’s General Plan in the February 11 meeting, Kwok spoke of recent revisions made to the December draft of this plan in response to feedback from Council.
“I want to emphasize that the revised language neither precludes nor commits the City to a ‘great park’ or any other particular land uses, those changes were done to make sure we are legally compliant with CEQA, that we are not presupposing any specific project,” Kwok said, adding, “We are not saying that we are developing – or not developing – any particular uses, including a ‘great park.’ So I just want to assure the community we are still moving on with the process of community engagement.”
These are small, but extremely significant tweaks in the language being used in conversation surrounding the future of Santa Monica Airport.
During the recent North of Montana Association meeting on Fire and Emergency Preparedness, which featured guest speakers including Mayor Lana Negrete, Fire Chief Matthew Hallock and Lindsey Call among others, CalFire Unit Chief Shane Littlefield, spoke of how SMO was utilized during the Palisades wildfire when wind conditions affected Camarillo airport to such an extent that firefighting and emergency aircraft were moved to Santa Monica so they could operate from there.
“Camarillo was going to be heavily impacted by [wind velocities] so we had a spread of over 30 helicopters to get out of Camarillo, because if they were just parked there, they weren't going to take off at all,” Littlefield said.
He explained how during the Palisades incident, two type one helicopters (Sikorsky S-64 Skycranes) holding at least 3000 gallons of water, one type two (typically a Bell 412EPX) and two type three helicopters (typically Airbus AS-350 B3) were all moved to Santa Monica Airport.
The very next day, an additional five more firefighting helicopters were relocated and stationed at SMO, along with a HLCO, which is an airborne firefighter who coordinates, assigns, and evaluates the use of aerial resources in support of incident objectives and two Cal Fire Bell UH-1 "Huey" helicopters that can be utilized for troop shuttle or emergency evacuation.
“So at the height of it, we had a total of 13 helicopters parked at Santa Monica, which was instrumental in being allowed to fly from – I think it was Saturday in particular – because being able to have a short response time, where we're not moving them hours away and utilizing fuel to get away from it, having that airport and that asset to us truly helped,” Littlefield said.
And then there was the Franklin Fire.
“We did utilize Santa Monica for two days out of the Franklin fire for our recon helicopters, our smaller helicopters, the type three, and then our HLCO platform. And then, on top of that, with Santa Monica for the duration of the incident, due to the size and the complexity [of the wildfire], a lot of us have to fly to [various] locations for meetings and Santa Monica became our hub for our transportation helicopters to get me over to the heat and fire, or even out to the Hughes fire or back to our regional center at Riverside,” Littlefield said.
“And me personally, I flew out of Santa Monica four times to get to different locations throughout the incident, which everybody knows, driving out of Santa Monica or Malibu to get to Riverside in a timely manner is not [an option] during a rush hour on a Friday afternoon,” Littlefield added.
During this last City Council meeting, Santa Monica’s Airport was only really discussed in terms of it representing a potential hazard itself as Kwok spoke of the number of accidents over the last 30 years, noise complaints and the potential soil and groundwater contamination. Not once was its role in the recent catastrophic wildfire disaster so much as even mentioned. It took public input from Eve Lopez, a Santa Monica resident, attorney and commercial pilot to establish that there actually is a connection.
“The Governor's Office of Emergency Planning actually has an aeronautical unit, which as we’ve seen, it’s the helicopters that get rid of these massive fires, particularly during a wind event. And so there [are] huge resources available,” Lopez said.
“That is why the airport saved so many lives because they were able to call and get authority, or, I should say, tell the airport that we're coming in with 13 helicopters, because we need to be close to that fire. When the wind shifted in Camarillo, they could not take off, they needed Santa Monica. Basic human decency is about ensuring that we mutually aid our neighbors, especially to the north … I understand the politics behind the airport, but here and now, that airport is here and operational and it is a proven asset," Lopez said.
scott.snowden@smdp.com
