The Seal Beach Environmental Quality Control Board will send a letter commenting on the draft EIR for the Pacific Airshow. The city of Huntington Beach has proposed continuing the airshow up to 2034, according to a Seal Beach staff report by Community Development Director Alexa Smittle. Part of the proposal is to expand the airshow to a five-day event.
The board unanimously approved sending the letter during the March 19 EQCB meeting. The vote was 4-0. The District Four board seat remains vacant.
The public has until April 7 to comment on the draft environmental impact report.
The letter will include comments that the project description is unclear, that the Final EIR should include flight paths, asking what is landing on the beach, requesting more information on the itinerary of events on each day and requesting a definition of pyrotechnics.
The airshow is an annual event held in Huntington Beach.
The Seal Beach Environmental Board letter will also propose including an alternative that would keep the airshow to three days.
District Three Board Member/Chair Susan Perrell raised concerns about streamers being dropped during the airshow.
District Four Councilwoman Patty Senecal said for College Park East the airshow was not three days but five days from the perspective of sound. “We’ve got Thursday and then they all come back Sunday and then they fly out on Monday,” she said.
She said she liked the airshow. “When they fly over our houses, it is like they are in your living room,” Senecal said.
“There are people who salute the planes and then there are people who hate the planes,” she said.
The project includes a night flight.
Senecal said the night flight was going to be an issue for most people.
Background
“Future Airshows are anticipated to be held annually for three days to up to five days, generally Friday through Sunday or up to Wednesday through Sunday, with flight practice flyovers beginning as early as Monday of the week of the Airshow,” Smittle wrote.
“The Airshow features civilian and military aircraft flybys and aerial acrobatics, air racing, helicopter and aircraft landing/runway displays, and displays of other emerging aviation/mobility technology, and visitor-serving entertainment, services, and amenities,” Smittle wrote.
“Aircraft associated with the Pacific Airshow have historically utilized the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base as the starting and ending locations for show flights, and the Project proposes to continue that practice,” Smittle wrote.
“The EQCB is invited to consider any potential impacts the Project could have on the Seal Beach community, and deliberate as to whether the DEIR has appropriately addressed those potential impacts,” Smittle wrote.
“At its discretion, the EQCB may collaboratively develop specific comments to submit in response to the DEIR. Under the California Environmental Quality Act, responses to these comments must be included in the Final EIR for the proposed project,” Smittle wrote
“EQCB comments should reflect the collective insights and concerns of all board members, be made in a form ready to be transcribed by staff for submittal to the City of Huntington Beach,” Smittle wrote.
