The Santa Monica residents group, Residocracy, is withholding support of a petition regarding the Santa Monica Airport (SMO) being circulated by aviation interests.
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), the lobbying group behind the airport initiative, explicitly has promoted its measure by linking it to to the Residocracy referendum.
Residocracy, however, informed its members that the AOPA initiative “has not been endorsed by Residocracy or Residocracy’s Community Network of Residents.”
In an email labeled “Alert,” Residocracy told its members that while the petition talks of preventing over-development at SMO “the actual goal…seems to be preserving the ‘status quo’ both for pilots … and for aviation businesses based at the airport.”
The group advised that anyone who regrets having signed the petition can rescind their signatures, and linked to a form to do so.
Other community groups to oppose the initiative, according to Residocracy, include Friends of Sunset Park, Northeast Neighbors, Ocean Park Association, Pico Neighborhood Association, Santa Monica Mid-City Neighbors, Wilshire-Montana Neighborhood Coalition, and Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights.
The groups say the initiative is masquerading as an anti-development measure, while aiming to keep airport traffic, including jets, at the present or increased levels.
On March 25, 2014, the Santa Monica City Council took actions to ultimately reduce aviation uses at SMO, and began a process to ensure that future development would be low-intensity, such as a park. Two days later the AOPA filed its initiative to change the City Charter to block the city from following its March 25 plan.
