January 11, 2007

Hawthorne decides housing development can proceed

The 176 high-end homes and a new Target store would replace a deserted research center despite concern about the mixed-use project's proximity to the airport.

By Doug Irving
Staff writer

A neighborhood of high-end homes proposed near Hawthorne's small airport won a crucial endorsement from the City Council this week, despite some concern about building so close to an active runway.

The homes and a new Target store would replace a deserted research center about a quarter of a mile from the airport. Hawthorne officials tout the proposed development as a way to bring new homeowners into the city -- and to recycle a patch of blighted industrial land.

But some aviation officials have questioned whether homes can coexist peacefully with such a close airport -- and with airplanes skimming past them. A corner of the Target store would also encroach on a special zone intended to limit development near the runway.

That prompted a county commission that reviews airport-area development to oppose the project last year. On Tuesday, Hawthorne's City Council voted 4-1 in favor of overriding that opposition and letting the project move forward.

Legally, the issue was whether the Target store would pose a problem by jutting into the runway's protection zone. But most of the two-hour debate focused more on the value of bringing middle-class homes to a part of Hawthorne once known for industrial sprawl.

Supporters of the project said it would create no obstacle for incoming airplanes, pointing out that other buildings already stand closer to the runway than the Target would. They talked about bringing new life to the neighborhood -- and new faces to the checkout lines of neighborhood businesses.

More than a dozen residents came to speak about the project, and they favored it nearly 2-to-1. A few even said they'd consider buying one of the homes.

"We want it as soon as we can get it," said Darlene Love, who lives not far from the project site. "If I can help carrying lumber, let me know."

Those who spoke against the project warned of worsening traffic and a greater draw on city resources such as police and schools.

They also said the inevitable result of mixing homes and airplanes would be noise complaints.

The only council member to vote against the project, Gary Parsons, suggested that the land should be developed into stores instead of homes. The development, he said, is "really not compatible."

Plans for the development, called "Central Park," show a gated neighborhood of 176 houses, with private yards, a community pool and a ribbon of parks running through its middle.

Development company Lee Homes intends to begin knocking down the existing buildings on the site in the spring, if it gets the final approvals it needs from the city. The first residents could move in during the summer of 2008.

Company President Jeff Lee told council members the development "will be something that we can be proud of for many years to come."

Thursday, April 01, 2004

By Johm Bogert

Words fly over dastardly plan to turn Hawthorne Airport into 2nd LAX

"I just hate to see all this beauty go the way of the buffalo," said Reginald Phillips. "I remember WWII and the P-51s lined up on the airport tarmac like aluminum chickens. I just can't imagine Hawthorne without this place."

Like many residents of the fabled City By The Freeway, Phillips -- known as Carlo "Chatty Carlo" Falcone before entering the Hawthorne Witness Protection Program in 1961 -- is profoundly upset over Wednesday's announcement that old Hawthorne Airport will be scraped off the face of the Earth to make way for a massive new regional commercial jet port.

"I wouldn't mind if they were just taking airport land," Phillips said over smoke from a large Havana, "but these guys are taking my home, too!"

In truth, the new plan just announced by the Hawthorne Come-Fly-With-Me Airport Fun Association, will take Phillips' two-bedroom home and nearly 1,500 other nearby dwellings as part of a multibillion dollar plan to replace the chronically underused facility with what developers call, "a second LAX, only lots, lots bigger and with no stupid noise restrictions."

"Them guys, they just got wise to this voting thing and made an end run," said a high-ranking Hawthorne official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, referring to a plan that learned much from a failed 2001 attempt by Paladin Partners LLC to turn the historic landing strip into a giant strip mall.

But even with only a fifth of registered voters bothering to come out in November of that year, Measure A was soundly defeated with 72 percent voting against it.

This time a consortium of Arab businessmen, along with the Plumbing and Concrete Union of New Jersey and actor Lou Diamond Phillips, bypassed both voters and a clueless city government that apparently remained unaware of the project until heavy equipment began eating away at the site early this morning.

Said Airport Fun Association spokesman Leonardo DiPerna, "Every two, three months some whack job heading for LAX tries to land a 747 on this runway and somebody has to wave him off with a flashlight. This place is an accident waiting to happen so why not enlarge it and supply the community with some fast-food jobs in the process?"

DiPerna's heavily funded bosses managed to take control of the sprawling airport facility by employing a little known city law that allows developers to bypass the usual pesky rules and referendums with the help of a small but influential cabal that meets the second Wednesday of each month in the playroom at a local hamburger restaurant.

There the laughter of happy Hawthorne children supplies a bug-proof venue for these power brokers who last December invoked City of Hawthorne Overlay District Statute (HD100 and 103), Sec. 17.48 and 17.49 of the municipal code with HD-54 zoning designations containing parcels RS-2-HD to RS-6-HD-6 and the necessary You-Don't-Touch-My-Wife Ordinance, 226.993.5.

"How obvious!" said Phillips about the little-known law that clearly states, "anybody from a foreign country or another state who has money must be smarter than us so why not let them do any darn thing they please?"

So the cabal, whose individual names I can't divulge because they threatened to "beat you (meaning me) good," granted development rights to the planned airport's developers.

Letters sent to affected residents today, April 1, stated: "GET OFF OUR LAND STIFFS! We're building an airport with souvenir shop, fast-food, indifferent service, heavy traffic, jets and big buildings named after dead guys so you better vacate if you know what's good for you! Enclosed find a check for $5,000 to cover the price of your pathetic little house and/or business. You got two weeks!"

The move was applauded by Wal-Mart, which is attempting a similar end-run around local officials in nearby Inglewood by going directly to voters who, they hope, will happily trade local zoning control for a chance to buy bedroom slippers for 15 percent less.

"April Fool's Day or not," remarked the soon-to-be-homeless Phillips, "It just don't seem right."

Publish Date:April 1, 2004