page_title: Santa Monica Airport
section_title: Future
hierarchical_section_title: Santa Monica Airport / Future
context_page_description: Santa Monica Airport is a general aviation airport largely in Santa Monica, California, United States. The airport is about 2 miles from the Pacific Ocean and 6 miles north of Los Angeles International Airport. The FAA's National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2009–2013 categorized it as a reliever airport. The airport is scheduled to remain open until 2029.
  One of the airport's former hangars, the Barker Hangar, is in use as a public events venue, and is commonly used for a number of televised awards ceremonies and concerts.
context_section_description: The city has invited the public to offer input regarding the airport's future. The city of Santa Monica sued the federal government seeking to void a 1948 agreement in which the city agreed to keep the land for aviation use in perpetuity in exchange for title to the property. On February 13, 2014, Judge John F. Walter dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that the city's "quiet title action" was barred by the statute of limitations and that the other issues would not be ripe for a judicial decision until the city decides definitively whether it will close the airport.
  The city appealed on October 14, 2014, citing the expiration of the 1984 agreement, after which FAA had agreed to release control of the city-owned parcel.  The appeal also noted that the FAA's leasehold, granted during World War II, was for that purpose alone, and could not be transformed into a larger interest (such as a permanent taking of city land by FAA demanding use of the land for air-travel purposes in perpetuity).  There has yet been no finally conclusive legal decision, nor any preclusive agreement reached between the city and the aviation interests/FAA.  An array of issues exists, which are still hotly debated in local, state, and national political arenas – as well as the courts.
  The consensus opinion is that the many issues will ultimately be decided in the courts, with the dates of transfer-of-control being the central issues.  In November 2014, voters passed the city-council-sponsored Measure LC, with a 60% "yes" vote.  Measure LC places limitations on land use once the airport is closed.  It proscribes commercial development, limiting development of the land to "public parks, recreational facilities or open space."  However, it allows the city council to decide what constitutes such facilities and to replace existing structures without voter approval.
  Cited reasons for public support of airport closure are an alleged threat to safety, despite no ground fatalities in the neighborhood around the airport in over a century, including a November 26, 1993 crash by a student pilot into an apartment building directly adjacent to a gasoline filling station, in a densely populated area of the city, and resulting in three fatalities (none on the ground).
  The Western parcel of the land on which the airport sits was to revert to city control, on June 15, 2015, of this sub-parcel of the city-owned land, by expiry of prior city-FAA agreements.  One tactic recommended by airport opponents is to demolish the portion of the runway which sits upon this land, with the primary justification being safety.  That is, at a minimum, the allowance of a buffer between the end of the runway and residential houses – currently 300 feet away – more preferably with the installation of aircraft-arrestors to prevent any runway overshoot from rolling past the runway and into the residential homes.  The FAA offered such an arrestor system to the city in 2008, but this offer was rebuffed.
  On January 28, 2017, it was announced that Santa Monica city officials and the Federal Aviation Administration had reached an agreement to close the Santa Monica Airport on December 31, 2028 and return 227 acres of aviation land to the city for eventual redevelopment. It is anticipated that the airport land will be redeveloped into areas for parks, open space, recreation, education and/or cultural use.
  In an attempt to reduce jet traffic, the city planned to shorten the runway from 4,973 feet to 3,500 feet by repainting the runway and moving some navigational aids. The runway shortening was completed on December 23, 2017.
caption: Approaching Santa Monica Airport from the east
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