As I have reported before, the City of Santa Monica is going through a three-step airport community process, also called the visioning process, to help determine what the future holds for the Santa Monica Airport (SMO). Phase II of the process, in which community members were given an opportunity to put in their vision for the airport property, has concluded and a report has been submitted to the City Council by Moore Icanofano Goltsman, Inc. (MIG), which conducted the study.
Phase II of the visioning process consisted of 32 scheduled community meetings in different locations around Santa Monica during the months of January though March. Airport supporters and opponents sat down to air out their views. I participated in one of these meetings in a hotspot for the opponents and, as expected, I was seriously outnumbered as a supporter of the airport. In fact, in the meeting I attended, I was one of only two supporters. Most of the other seven participants would prefer to see the airport torn apart, or at the minimum eliminate jet and flight school traffic at the airport, which would leave minimal airplane activity.
