Dear Editor,
Aviation is the safest form of transportation in the City of Los Alamitos. So why does the ALUC want to control land use decisions best left to local decision makers?
The Orange County Airport Land Use Commission (ALUC) is made up of political appointees and not aviation land use experts. How do I know? Because I’m an actual aviation safety, airport planning and airport land use compatibility expert. I have spent my entire career grappling with difficult aviation safety problems and looking for balanced land use compatibility solutions for communities just like the City of Los Alamitos. For nearly 35 years I have devoted my practice to serving the interests of improving aviation safety while providing economic prosperity and smart land use decisions to the people living nearby airports. Despite my expertise, you don’t have to rely on my analysis of the City’s Housing Element sites or take my word for it. You can look to the ALUC staff’s own analysis for the right answer.
The ALUC has a set of objective aviation safety and noise criteria for measuring compatibility with their plan. Their staff reviewed the Los Alamitos Housing Element and guess what they found?
Aviation safety: All proposed housing sites comply with the Joint Forces Training Base (JFTB) airport safety Clear Zones (and it’s not even close). All sites comply with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airspace protection areas (also not even close).
Aviation noise: All housing sites comply with the ALUC noise contours.
Then you ask; how did the ALUC find the City’s Housing Element incompatible if all the City’s housing opportunity sites comply with their objective criteria? What I found is that the ALUC sees their role as something larger than their stated plan.
The ALUC has taken the activist position throughout Orange County that if you want to build residential anywhere within their jurisdiction, they will oppose it. It’s that simple. Don’t let the facts, their actual adopted plans or the objective FAA safety facts get in the way. Ask the Cities of Seal Beach, Newport Beach, and Irvine as they were each forced to overrule the ALUC to adopt their Housing Elements and avoid the ALUC power grab.
Again, how do I know this is the ALUC position? Because I have worked on residential projects and plans in the County to make them compatible with the ALUC plans. I have worked for cities, landowners and developers trying to reconcile the ALUC’s stated criteria with their bias against any residential development near airports in the County.
JFTB is one of only three airports in Orange County. And yet some of the most densely populated areas of the County are within the airport land use planning areas of these three airports. These are not green field airports without people living, working, and playing near them. These are urban communities where the demand for affordable housing continues to outstrip supply. Over 2,500 existing homes and over 10,000 people live closer to the Base and its flight paths than the nearest housing opportunity sites in the City’s Housing Element.
Military service members, teachers, cops, firefighters, and nurses need to be able to live affordably in the communities they serve. Without continued housing development these people are the first to be pushed out of Los Alamitos.
The ALUC contends that they, as an unelected advisory commission that rarely meets and with no members from Los Alamitos, know what’s best for the City’s housing and land use planning. Despite their own objective standards for aviation safety and aircraft noise being met, they think they should control the sovereign duty of the City Council over land use.
Not just for the City’s Housing Element but for all planning, development and permitting decisions in the City. That’s because if the City Council fails to overrule the ALUC’s planning whim, all development decisions in the City will fall to the ALUC.
Nick Johnson,
Oak Park
Shelley Hasselbrink misspoke
Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to your article which appeared on August 10, 2023, in the Event-News Enterprise (“Final vote on Airport Land Use Plan (ALUC) expected in August”) and the Seal Beach Sun (“College Park East residents await Los Alamitos ALUC vote”).
In David Young’s August 10th article, Los Alamitos City Council Member Shelley Hasselbrink is quoted. She stated that I had voted to overrule the Airport Land Use Commission (ALUC) as a Seal Beah City Councilmember. That is indeed what Councilmember Hasselbrink stated at the July 17, 2023, Los Alamitos City Council meeting, but it is not true.
At the August 29, 2022, Seal Beach Special City Council meeting, the vote was 4-1 to overrule the ALUC decision on the Seal Beach Housing Element Update and I was the dissenting vote. In addition, while I am a member of the Airport Land Use Commission, I had recused myself from their February 17, 2022, meeting, at which the Seal Beach Housing Element Update was reviewed. I did not vote, or attend, in order to avoid any conflict of interest.
I have attached the minutes from the August 29, 2022, Seal Beach Special City Council Meeting (ALUC overrule), which shows the record of the vote. I would expect that the reported misinformation will be corrected.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Schelly Sustarsic
Seal Beach Mayor Pro Tem
Editor’s Note:
Along with Council member Schelly Sustarsic’s note, the City of Seal Beach included documentation of the vote which confirmed that Sustarsic had indeed voted against the overrule.
Council member Hasselbrink has also conceded that she misspoke after being given incorrect information.
“I misspoke when I said the Seal Beach ALUC override vote was unanimous. I was given bad information and didn’t do my proper due diligence. I wanted to make the point that every city in Orange County with airports has overridden the ALUC finding. My comment about how Schelly voted was not even necessary. I will do better,” wrote Hasselbrink in a note to ENE.