Here’s a letter the West Athens, Hollypark and Parkside Village communities sent to our representative Congresswoman Waters. She responded by participating in a community meeting in February 2018 and continues to help community members with airport issues.

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Honorable Congresswoman Maxine Waters
US House of Representatives
2221 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Michael P. Huerta
FAA Administrator
800 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20591

Via US Mail

Re: Hawthorne-West Athens Part 150 Participation

Dear Congresswoman Waters and Administrator Huerta,

We are located in the flight path of the Hawthorne airport. Our community is concerned about safety, noise and pollution issues caused by the increasing commercial air traffic into Hawthorne (HHR).

We have tried for over a year to engage with the airport; however, the airport says they are unable to schedule a meeting with our community at this time.  The airport is finishing their Part 150 noise study but never included the West Athens community as part of the process. Community members have sent Part 150 comment letters to the local FAA office which have gone unanswered.

Continue reading “West Athens Community Letter to Congresswoman Waters”

It gets complicated, but it all seems designed to ignore those of us in local communities…

1. City of Hawthorne owns the airport and the City Council gets to make overall strategic decisions about what will happen to the airport. They approve the Master Plan.
2. FAA operates the runway and the control tower. It contracts out control tower operations to Serco. Since it is giving grants to the City for the airport it likely feels it has say over the runway, similar to the Santa Monica Airport case.
3. Hawthorne Airport LLC runs the off-runway portions of the airport. They have leased the airport property from the City for 45 years. They are building several new hangars for the large turbo props and private jets. It is a strategic partnership of:
   1. Kearny Real Estate Company
   2. Wedgewood
   3. Howard CDM
4. City of Hawthorne airport staff includes:
   1. Guido Fernandez, Administrative Analyst, (310) 349-1636, GFernandez@cityofhawthorne.org 
   2. ARNOLD SHADBEHR, Interim City Manager, (310) 349-2908, ashadbehr@hawthorneca.gov

One of the main outstanding questions remains:

Who controls the flight paths over our homes?

The Airport says it’s the FAA and the pilots.

The Pilots say it’s the FAA and the airport.

The FAA says it’s the Pilots and Airport.

Hmmm – a game of no one wants to take responsibility perhaps?