Grant Threats Prompt Van Nuys Lease Extension

The Los Angeles City Council did an about face last week and approved a 25-year lease extension for a helicopter company at Van Nuys Airport. Last March, the council bowed to public pressure and voted against giving Bonseph Helinet the extension, which was tied to a planned $25 million redevelopment of its existing facilities at the airport. But a staff report received recently by the council said turning down the lease would jeopardize about $300 million in federal grants at LAX and other airports, and Mayor Karen Bass said that would endanger projects vital to keeping the basin's airports in top shape, particularly with major events like the World Cup and Olympics coming in the next four years. "Our airports are entry points to our city for the entire world and we have to run them like it," she said in a statement before the vote.

But a well-organized coalition of anti-airport activists say their health is at risk from exhaust fumes and the noise from the facility, the country's busiest GA airport, is making life intolerable. Suzanne Gutierrez, cofounder of a group called Fume Fighters, called the council's reversal "a real slap in the face to the community," according to the L.A. Times. "The community is going to suffer. There is no mitigation for us. We are already suffering from the fumes."

The council's reversal was quickly followed by a deal to settle a lawsuit launched by the helicopter company after the project was scuttled. The company has been at Van Nuys for 35 years and the project involves replacing old deteriorating buildings and infrastructure to accommodate the existing business, which serves the movie and television industry and also operates medevac flights. No expansion is planned.