With secession victory, will Van Nuys Airport win? (From the Newsroom).

THE front page of the Feb. 4, 2002 edition of the Business Journal carried a photograph of a man named Mark Sullivan standing in front of a few of the planes he owned, parked on the runway at the Van Nuys Airport. The photo was taken on the runway, for one thing, because Sullivan can't lease enough hangar space at the airport to fit all his planes into.

As the story that accompanied Sullivan's s photo went on to explain, he is one of six business owners who lease space at the airport from Los Angeles World Airports who've been waiting -- some for as long as 12 years -- for permission from the L.A. city agency to expand.

All that was holding them up was a master plan for the airport, LAWA told Business Journal reporter Jacqueline Fox, and that would be ready for review by mid-year. Here we are in early June -- as close to mid-year as you're going to get-and what is LAWA telling Fox now?

Well, Valley VOTE, in its negotiations with LAFCO, managed to get the Van Nuys Airport on the list of assets that would go to a new Valley city if secession turns out to be successful. That should be considered a feather in Valley VOTE's cap since the airport, the busiest general aviation airport in the world, is probably one of the most valuable city assets in the Valley.

But it's still in the hands of municipal bureaucrats and they have apparently announced that the master plan they've been talking about for years will just have to wait until after voters make a decision on whether the airport is actually theirs to deal with or not.

That probably shouldn't come as a surprise. If I ran LAWA and had major security concerns at every airport I operated, a huge battle over expansion at LAX on my plate and questions about whether I would even still own Van Nuys Airport by this time next year, trying to accommodate Skytrails Aviation (Sullivan's company) would go to the bottom of my to-do list too.

So business owners at the airport who want to expand but can't because LAWA is dragging its heels are frustrated -- which is exactly the scenario you'd expect secession advocates to be able to exploit Another example of a bloated LA. city bureaucracy ignoring the needs and desires of what should be an important constituency: the Valley business community. Right?

But don't get too far ahead of the story here.

There's another constituency nearby that also happens to have an interest in the future of the Van Nuys Airport. At most monthly meetings of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association, Wayne Williams takes the podium to describe the status of discussion he and others in the group are having with LAWA and the city. Their beef is with the planes that use the airspace over their homes for takeoffs and landings.

Typically, the news Williams has to deliver is not good. In fact, it's somewhere close to the news Sullivan usually gets from LAWA: Nothing new to report.

However, the message Williams delivers adds fuel to a fire of resentment that has been burning at SOHA for years. If there is one group that has been interested in seeing the Valley become its own city almost forever, it's probably the largest, and one of the most powerful, homeowners association in the city.

The high profile that the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association has taken in the secession battle is probably helped along by the fact its president of a couple of decades, Richard Close, is one of the handful leading the secession movement.

Close has told more than one reporter he has no interest in running for elected office in a new city and I believe him. But I find it hard to believe that, if secession is successful, he won't have a little political muscle to flex if and when he chooses to.

Likewise with the homeowners association. In fact, I imagine it will be one of a few special interest groups that will feel itself in a position to say to a new Valley city council, "We were here for you when nobody else was, and now it's payback time."

Payback is liable to mean, among many things, a sympathetic ear on matters concerning the Van Nuys Airport. Neighborhood groups, as much as business interests, have been at the heart of the secession movement for years and are right to believe a new city government should address their needs -- immediately.

So what's a new city council to do? Who's it going to try to please first?

Business interests at the airport who want to grow their companies and are saying to new elected city officials, "Thank goodness for a government that will listen to our problems?"

Or a powerful homeowners association that doesn't want one more plane taking off or landing at the airport and is saying, "Thank goodness for a government that will listen to our problems?"

If and when this situation comes up, I don't know what a new Valley mayor and city council will do. But it's the kind of "what if' business interests should be considering.

Up to now, pro-secessionists have been able to get away with saying a new city would be 'business-friendly," not having to worry too much about what that really means.

My guess, though, is that the story of conflicting interests that have a stake in the future of the airport is the kind of story that will be played out many times between now and a November election, indicating that choosing between a yes or no vote on secession is not going to be an easy decision to make.

Michael Hart is editor of the San Fernando Valley Business Journal. He can be reached at [e-mail].