Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors continues to spend time and millions of taxpayer dollars studying closure and redevelopment scenarios for Whiteman Airport.
But here’s the question nobody seems willing to answer:
Why is the County considering closing one of the region’s most important public assets while vacant and underutilized properties sit idle all around the San Fernando Valley?
The Redevelopment Sites Already Exist
Just down the street from Whiteman Airport sits several boarded–up commercial buildings on a prime piece of real estate at the corner of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Osborne Street. Neighbors tell us it’s remained vacant for decades.
The same situation exists in Panorama City with the former Montgomery Ward property. They finally bulldozed the eyesore after more than 20 years, but only after Valley residents repeatedly complained about dangerous conditions. Now it sits vacant again as residents continue to hear promises of housing, retail, and economic revitalization.
In North Hollywood, the former Valley Plaza site sat blighted and largely abandoned for years before demolition finally began. Over nearly a decade, the shopping center deteriorated into a hotspot for fires, squatting, and criminal activity before lawmakers finally approved demolition of the structure. Today, there is still no approved redevelopment plan.
Here’s what makes this even more puzzling.
Commercial properties directly across from Whiteman Airport are already being marketed to investors based on the area’s redevelopment potential. In other words, investors already see opportunity here.
The vacant land is already here. The redevelopment sites are already here. The opportunity for housing, retail, and economic growth is already here.
So why does the conversation keep coming back to closing the airport?
Whiteman Airport: Vital Infrastructure and Public Safety Asset
County lawmakers, Los Angeles City councilmember Monica Rodriguez, and critics have argued that Whiteman Airport should close because of safety concerns and the need for more housing and commercial development.
Whiteman Airport is safe. It is not a vacant lot waiting to be redeveloped. It is a working airport that already serves an important purpose.
The airport supports more than 400 jobs, approximately 20 businesses, and eight nonprofit organizations. It contributes more than $110 million to the economy each year and provides the county nearly $5.3 million in direct revenue for the Public Works Aviation Enterprise Fund.
The airport also provides flight training, aviation education, and a base for community partnerships that benefit the San Fernando Valley.
Perhaps more importantly, Whiteman is a critical public safety asset, serving as a staging location for emergency operations and it also supports aviation resources that help protect Southern California during wildfires and other disasters. At a time when our communities face year-round fire threats, removing aviation infrastructure should concern every resident.
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Modernization, Not Closure
The Whiteman Airport Coalition supports modernization. We support investments that improve safety, upgrade facilities, create workforce development opportunities, reduce environmental impacts, and strengthen the airport’s value to the community.
But modernization and closure are not the same thing.
The question isn’t whether Whiteman should evolve. It should.
The question isn’t whether opportunity exists. It does.
The real question is why the County Board of Supervisors, various local leaders and advocacy groups keep looking at the airport when so much opportunity already exists around it.
