I'm sure this happens more than we realize, but I found some interesting reading in AOPA. Seems like the Santa Monica city government and council is none to happy with the airport and has decided to file a lawsuit to take over the land rights and turn the airport into wonderful revenue generating (not!) park. Hopefully it goes nowhere, but it is worth the read and follow over the next few months.
http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All- ... ?CMP=ADV:2
Nick
SMO RL Woes
Re: SMO RL Woes
The city has been trying to shut down SMO for years, and I have a really bad feeling that they will be successful. Even if this lawsuit doesn't go their way, they will just evict all the flight school and FBO tenants when the leases expire in 2015 and the airport--while still technically open--will just be a useless strip of concrete.
Oh well. It had a good run! (over 100 years)
Oh well. It had a good run! (over 100 years)
Josh Hinman
PPL ASEL IA (KSMO)
PPL ASEL IA (KSMO)
Re: SMO RL Woes
I hope you're wrong, Josh. SMO is such a cool airport with so much history and lore, it would be a tragedy to lose it. From what I've read though, it sounds like the airport's opponents still have quite the uphill battle ahead of them and this latest suit appears to be a desperate move.