Cal. PUC § 21690.20

The Legislature hereby finds that Los Angeles International Airport is one of the important air terminals of the world, making a significant contribution daily to the economy of California.

Since 1959, jet air traffic at the airport has increased from 80 flights daily to nearly 1,000 daily. This increasing air traffic and necessary expansion of airport facilities has had an adverse affect on the residents of the surrounding areas. Expansion and development has and is expected to require the acquisition of many homes in the vicinity of the airport and has rendered other homes in areas subjected to aircraft noise nearly uninhabitable. Property owners in the vicinity of the airport are either unable to sell their homes or able to sell only at depressed market prices. Under present laws, the Department of Airports of the City of Los Angeles is required only to pay homeowners “fair market value” for their property. With increasing property costs and current high interest rates, it is impossible for a homeowner to purchase a comparable dwelling in a comparable residential area for amounts now being paid as “fair market value.”

The City Council of the City of Los Angeles has initiated this legislation to enable the city to (1) assist displaced homeowners to relocate in comparable residential areas and housing, (2) provide, where available, replacement housing acceptable to affected homeowners, and (3) purchase affected homes to compensate homeowners for the depressed values of their property.

There is precedent for the provision of replacement housing, where available, in Chapter 953 of the Statutes of 1968, by which the Department of Public Works is authorized to provide relocation assistance and replacement housing to certain individuals and families displaced because of construction of certain state highway projects. Further, there is precedent for relocation payments to compensate certain homeowners in Public Law 90-495 and in Chapter 3 of the Statutes of 1968, First Extraordinary Session.