AIRPORT PROPOSAL DOESN'T FLY; BOARD SHOOTS DOWN BID BY ANTONOVICH TO INVOLVE VOTERS IN LAX EXPANSION.

Byline: Douglas Haberman Daily News Staff Writer

A proposal by Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich for a November ballot measure to give voters a voice regarding airport expansion never got off the ground Tuesday.

Instead, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a counterproposal by Supervisor Don Knabe to create a county task force to study the matter.

The task force will look into quality-of-life impacts - including traffic, fuel dumping and flight patterns - in connection with the proposed expansion of Los Angeles International Airport to handle an increase from 60 million to 98 million passengers a year.

Knabe said Antonovich's ballot measure would have given voters a false sense of security that their concerns were being addressed.

The county task force will work with the city, its Department of Airports and the Federal Aviation Administration.

An amendment by Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, which was included in the vote, put the county on record as supporting a regional approach to airport expansion.

An amendment by Antonovich, also part of the vote, called for representation for the city and the League of California Cities on the county task force.

The supervisors were clearly unhappy with what they perceived as their long-running exclusion from involvement in airport matters, particularly LAX expansion, and sought a stronger role for the county.

``The question a lot of us are asking is when is enough enough'' at LAX? Yaroslavsky said to Phil Depoian, deputy executive director of the city Department of Airports. ``If you try to ram this through,'' he said of LAX expansion, ``you're going to face'' lawsuits.

Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, whose district includes LAX, urged the board to support Antonovich's proposal to send a message to city airport officials that freeways and streets leading to LAX can't handle increased traffic.

Antonovich said the Department of Airports has a credibility problem and that if voters approved his measure, ``it's a lot more difficult to do back-room deals.''

But he couldn't muster the votes for the measure, which would have asked voters whether a projected increase in air traffic in the Los Angeles region should be handled by expanding LAX alone or by also enlarging the airports in Ontario and Palmdale.

Other supervisors said it was premature to put a measure on the ballot when LAX expansion plans haven't yet gone through the environmental impact review process.

Depoian said Antonovich's measure wasn't necessary because LAX alone can't handle the expected growth in demand for air service in the region. The Department of Airports, he said, is committed to developing the Palmdale and Ontario airports.

Developing Palmdale's facility, however, won't happen until airlines see a market there, Depoian said. It will take better ground transportation to and from the airport for that to happen, he said.