Federal challenge threatens to ground $250 mil. airport project.

It has been seven years since the City of Los Angeles Department of Airports approved a master plan to quadruple the size of Ontario International Airport to handle more passengers and freight.

Airport officials thought the long-delayed expansion might finally be cleared for take-off, with the Department of Airports planning to break ground in spring 1993. But a new challenge by U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife officials could postpone the expansion groundbreaking until 1994.

The current Ontario International Airport expansion design calls for adding 36 aircraft gates to the existing 22 gates. The new gates will funnel passengers in and out of planes at three new terminals which, combined, will contain 700,000 square feet of space. That is 10 times the amount of building space in the existing airport terminal.

Once all the approvals and financing are in place, the three new terminals will be built just to the east of the existing terminal, said airport officials. The existing 70,000-square-foot Ontario International Airport terminal will keep functioning as the expansion goes on, and after it is finished.

The expansion also calls for another 6,000 parking spaces, according to airport officials.

If Ontario's annual air traffic keeps growing, a fourth terminal may be added by the year 2000, according to an economic study conducted by the department. That would bring the total number of terminals to five.

Airport officials thought they had cleared the final hurdle in July of this year, when they completed what they thought would be the final environmental impact report. That report declared no endangered species were located on the expansion site. But a month later, the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife rejected the report and called for another.

At this point, unless the fish and wildlife agency has a change of heart, construction of the $250 million airport expansion won't start until 1994, said airport officials.

It is delays like this, and doubts about funding, that have caused some Inland Empire commercial brokers to conclude the airport expansion is still fogged in.

"The airport officials still don't know who will pay for the expansion and all the infrastructure that is needed before construction can start," lamented Mike Chavez, a commercial leasing agent with the Ontario office of Cushman & Wakefield of California Inc., a commercial brokerage firm. "I don't see any way construction can start before 1994."

Airport officials seem just as frustrated as Inland Empire brokers.

"U.S. Fish and Wildlife said the whole area must be 'trapped' in May 1993 to see if there are any endangered animal species, primarily the Stephens kangaroo rat (which is a candidate for listing on the endangered species list)," said Steve Crawther, environmental manager for the L.A. Department of Airports.

The consultant who reported the Ontario Airport expansion site was free of endangered species in August 1992 was challenged by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department in September. At an Oct. 13 meeting, Fish and Wildlife officials decided they would require animal traps set in the airport expansion area to make certain there are no endangered species on the site, Crawther said.

"We're still trying to convince the U.S. Fish and Wildlife that enough studies have been made, that the project doesn't need to be further delayed," Crawther said.

John Hanlon, the Carlsbad, Calif.-based Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist working on the Ontario airport EIR, could not be reached to comment on the ongoing study.

Despite the possible setback, Dennis Watson, an Ontario International Airport spokesman, is upbeat. He said he thinks the final endangered species quest will be conducted and approved in time to start construction next year. But getting the project to this crossroads has been an arduous journey.

"The first plan was completed in 1985, but it was delayed because of environmental concerns," Watson said. "The surrounding cities thought it would bring in too much noise. The environmentalists felt it would wipe out large populations of endangered plants and animals."

"We also needed the major airlines who would be paying landing fees to sign off on the plan," he added.

Later on, the plan was altered to provide better security and better engineering so the expanded facility would suffer less damage in a major earthquake, Watson said.

Ontario International Airport's existing terminal handles all passengers. The new plan calls for four separate terminals, including the existing one, the two that will be built in the first phase of expansion and one that will be constructed in the final expansion phase. Each of the terminals is designed to handle three million passengers per year, Watson said.

Once the expansion plans clear the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Department of Airports must sell bonds to finance construction.

The Department of Airports hopes to sell $150 million in bonds that would be paid back from the income of all the L.A. area airports; Los Angeles International Airport, Ontario International Airport, Palmdale Regional Airport and Van Nuys General Aviation Airport. The airports department also hopes to raise another $100 million from bonds it plans to sell and repay with revenue from a proposed $3 fee charged to each passenger flying into any of the L.A. area airports.

The Federal Aviation Administration must approve the per-passenger fees and the $100 million bond offering. That approval is considered likely because similar financing plans have already have been instated at other airports, such as Las Vegas.

While the Department of Airports is still trying to find the money to expand its operations, United Parcel Service has finished a $60 million complex for its West Coast Air Hub at Ontario. The cargo carrier leases 17 acres of airport property for the taxi way that connects its five new buildings, totaling 560,000 square feet.

The main parcel-sorting building can process up to 28,000 parcels per hour to 48 different locations. It also serves as a West Coast port of entry and as an export point for international shipping.

Like UPS, the City of Ontario is moving ahead with its own plans to handle the increasing air traffic and business taking place in the Inland Empire. The municipality is searching the Ontario International Airport area for a site where it can build a convention center.

Norm Priest, director of Community and Economic Development for the City of Ontario, said expansion of the airport terminal will give the Inland Empire a quality image that will draw additional businesses to the area, especially hotels.

"It is a key ingredient in getting a new $50 million to $60 million convention center built for Ontario," Priest said.

Civic and business leaders are scouring the land around Ontario International Airport for a site for the convention center. It tentatively is planned for a 20-acre site and will include 175,000 to 200,000 square feet of space, Priest said.

Ontario's proposed convention facility would be financed by selling certificates of participation, a debt instrument backed by a lease the city would sign to operate the facility, Priest said.

Trade shows and conventions will bring Ontario the kind of exposure it needs to lure additional businesses, Priest predicted.

"The convention center will be built regardless of when the airport is expanded," Priest said. "But it would enhance our image and our ability to sell Ontario as a convention site if the airport expansion was finished by the time the center opens."