AIRPORT COMMISSIONERS APPROVE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT FOR LAX SPECIFIC PLAN AMENDMENT STUDY, ADOPT STAFF-RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVE
(Los Angeles, California – February 5, 2013) The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners today approved the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the LAX Specific Plan Amendment Study (SPAS), including the Final LAX SPAS Report; the Staff-Recommended Alternative; and amendments to the LAX Plan and LAX Specific Plan. The Board also certified that the Draft EIR and the Final EIR were completed in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the State and City of Los Angeles CEQA Guidelines. The Board also adopted the SPAS Mitigation, Monitoring and Reporting Program (MMRP) and the SPAS CEQA Findings and Statement of Overriding Considerations.
Actions taken today may be subject to review or approval by other decision-making bodies including, but not limited to, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission, the Los Angeles City Council, and the Los Angeles County Airport Land Use Commission. Various state and federal reviews and approvals, including review by the Federal Aviation Administration, will also be required prior to implementation.
The LAX SPAS identified and evaluated nine potential alternatives to certain components of the LAX Master Plan, referred to as Yellow Light Projects, including various configurations for the north airfield, terminal improvements, and LAX’s ground transportation system.
Following completion of the LAX SPAS Draft EIR, an extensive review of public comments, analysis of the environmental impacts of each SPAS alternative, and review of SPAS project objectives, staff identified and recommended an alternative to the Board for its consideration as a preferred alternative.
The Staff-Recommended Alternative is a combination of SPAS Alternatives 1 and 9. Alternative 1 is a configuration option for LAX’s north airfield, along with terminal improvements. The recommended airfield features include moving Runway 6 Left/24 Right (the northernmost LAX runway) 260 feet north and constructing a center taxiway between the two north airfield runways; standardizing all Group 5 and Group 6 operations when the visibility is greater than one-half mile; and addressing runway safety area and taxiway/taxi lane deficiencies. Terminal improvement features limit the total number of passenger gates at LAX to 153, and allow for the development of northern terminals, including a new Terminal Zero and northerly extensions of the Tom Bradley International Terminal and the Midfield Satellite Concourse.
Alternative 9 is the recommended option for LAX’s ground transportation system featuring new ground transportation facilities outside the Central Terminal Area, including a consolidated rental car facility, an Intermodal Transportation Facility, and an Automated People Mover. Using the people mover, the public would move between the new transportation facilities and passenger terminals, as well as to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (Metro’s) proposed rail station at the intersection of Century and Aviation boulevards.
LAWA staff also identified two alternative locations where LAWA facilities could interface with future light rail currently being studied by Metro: at the Intermodal Transportation Facility in the vicinity of Lot C, and at the east end of the Central Terminal Area near the entrance to LAX, preserving the option for Metro to bring light rail directly into the airport.
Implementation of the individual improvements proposed under the Staff-Recommended Alternative would be subject to future detailed planning, engineering, and project-level environmental review, such as project-level review of individual improvements under CEQA, and the evaluation and approval processes of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Approval of the SPAS Staff Recommended Alternative would provide the platform from which the specific details of the proposed improvements would be further defined and evaluated in connection with current and future FAA standards.
