Following the completion of Saturday’s public meeting (more on that later), the Santa Monica Airport Conversion Project launched its third survey to bring in stakeholder feedback about the future land uses for the land on which the airport now rests. It is widely believed that the City of Santa Monica will close the airport on January 1, 2029, the first day it can do so under a consent decree with the federal government.
The results of the first two surveys were used to create five “guiding principles” to guide the remainder of the process. The goal is to have a plan for the Council to consider in 2026 for the airport that will include short-term changes, long-term changes, and possible funding sources that are all agreed upon by the majority of stakeholders who have taken part in the process.
“The next set of questions will ask you to review and comment on the draft Guiding Principles. Input from this survey will be combined with community contributions collected at the December 7th, 2024 community event and inform the refinement of the draft Guiding Principles before they are presented to the City Council for their adoption early in 2025,” reads the introduction to the survey, explaining the goals for the current round of outreach.
I took the survey earlier this morning, and it took me about fifteen minutes. Some of the questions felt repetitive from previous surveys, but I guess that’s by design. Sometime in the next couple of weeks, take fifteen minutes out of your day to make sure to give your feedback. It might be years before the airport can be closed, and even longer before some of these changes are made on the ground; but it’s a big piece of land and the decisions made now will have generational impact.
