Airport compromise long on expediency but lacking specifics.

Political interests and the shortage of time have dictated much of the growing support behind a compromise plan to modernize Los Angeles International Airport.

Community groups, the airlines and members of the City Council that previously opposed Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn's $9 billion LAX Master Plan have cautiously embraced an alternative drafted by Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski and approved by the mayor.

Support behind the Hahn-Miscikowski proposal appears to have little to do with the details, which mimic Hahn's original proposal. Instead, political positioning and a broad desire to end a decade's worth of deadlocked airport plans have driven much of the consensus.

"There are so many dynamics in play." said El Segundo Mayor Kelly McDowell. "One of the reasons we're making progress in trying to reach an agreement is because we've got the political people in the City of L.A. and El Segundo engaged in the process. Before, that wasn't the case."

More than anything, what's drawing the various sides together is a perceived need to cut a deal as quickly as possible.

The southern runways at LAX need to be reconfigured to eliminate incursions, which occur when planes come too close to each other. Also, the Bradley Terminal needs additional gates on its West Side to accommodate the Airbus A-380 jumbo jets expected to join fleets as early as 2006.

"The plan needs to be approved this year," said Council President Alex Padilla. "The underlying data that supports the environmental studies and the plan itself is aging. And for us to not approve something this year is not only a missed opportunity but a failed responsibility."

Added Councilman Jack Weiss: "The shame of it is the Hahn administration didn't commission an independent hard-nosed security analysis two-and-a-half years ago, when he should have. People want to get something done."

Political components

Hahn, the biggest convert to the compromise, faces re-election next year in what is becoming a crowded field of challengers. Miscikowski, who had been a critic of the mayor over the LAX issue, is now working with him and could emerge as a supporter in his re-election bid. Miscikowski's own future is the subject of speculation, since she will be termed out of the City Council next year.

No one else on the council has officially endorsed the plan, with most members preferring to wait for several more months of hearings and studies. Plus, there is at least one vocal opponent: City Councilman Bernard Parks, who also has entered the mayor's race and is promoting his own airport plan.

While momentum has been slowly building to sign off on an airport deal and end years of squabbling over a handful of proposals, political considerations could influence the final vote, especially if City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa becomes a candidate for mayor, as expected.

With Hahn so significantly linked to the LAX proposal--even in its truncated form-council-members opposing Hahn's re-election would be faced with voting for a plan that the mayor is certain to trumpet in his campaign.

Former El Segundo Mayor Mike Gordon, who is working with a coalition of 125 cities and agencies near LAX, called the proposal a "leap of faith."

"We don't understand why we're rushing," he said. "Why not fix the EIR to reflect what the plan should be, as opposed to putting it forward with parts we are opposed to? We think we should amend the EIR with the Master Plan so the plan goes forward with complete support."

Miscikowski rejects the idea of amending the EIR--as well as speculation that she might want to lead the modernization effort upon leaving office.

"I really enjoy planning," she said, adding that she has no plans to be involved in the airport redesign. "I understand it. I see a problem and I see a way it not only could be solved, but much better. I'm very fatalistic that something will come along but I'm not seeking or preparing for anything specific right now."

Richard Lichtenstein, president of consulting group Marathon Communications Inc., said the Miscikowski compromise "has been packaged and sold in a way that is more palatable to these people, even though it may be very similar to what we had before. Sometimes it's not what you say but who's saying it. Cindy has spoken with a different voice."

Is it Hahn's plan?

By most accounts, Hahn's original plan would have had little chance for council approval, especially since it had been marketed by then-Airport Commission President Ted Stein, who had alienated neighborhood and business groups.

Complicating Stein's lobbying effort was the ongoing investigation into contracting practices at the airport. Stein and Deputy Mayor Troy Edwards were forced to resign their positions this spring.

Ironically, much of the Miscikowski compromise is based on the Hahn plan that had been pushed by Stein and Edwards.

The difference, she said, is that only those projects in Hahn's original plan considered "green-lighted" would be approved by the City Council later this year. Those projects include a consolidated rental car facility, reconfiguration of the southern runways and an intermodal transportation center that connects passengers from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Green Line to the airport's terminal via a tram-like "people mover."

More controversial elements of Hahn's plan, such as a Manchester Square check-in facility, the tearing down of Terminals 1, 2 and 3, and the closing off of what are now the main parking garages, would be "yellow-lighted," or put off for approval until further analysis and environmental studies are complete.

The airlines oppose building the Manchester Square facility and closing the central parking area to passengers.

"We're trying to understand more about (the plan)," said Kelley Brown, executive director of the L.A. Airline Airport Affairs Committee, which represents 80 airlines opposed to Manchester Square and the terminals' destruction. "How do you ensure the consensus plan, the green-lighted projects, are the ones that go forward and the yellow-lighted ones hopefully don't go forward?"

Lee Harrington, chief executive and president of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., said immediacy in getting a plan approved played a significant role in the business group's decision to support the Hahn-Miscikowski compromise.

The LAEDC had disagreed with the Manchester Square project and the terminals' destruction in Hahn's original plan last year.

"If we don't move forward under this EIR, it may be 10 years before we're ready to move forward again," he said. "We really wanted to look at what would get the community behind the plan. And this approach is the one we thought would have the best chance of getting through City Council and the community."

As for politics, Raphael Sonenshein, political science professor at Cal State Fullerton, said Hahn could well be the beneficiary.

"(Miscikowski's) proposal at first was seen as a challenge to the mayor. But, at the end of the day, it turned out to be helpful because it allowed a compromise to be reached that allowed the plan to move forward," he said. "In recent years, the problem was moving the plan forward at all. The mayor's plan was going somewhere, but it seemed stalled."