University Hills hang gliding conflict

A Crestline Soaring Society board member explained the air park exists under a federal FERC mitigation mandate and read a Department of Water Resources letter urging the city to coordinate before approving nearby projects.

The designer of the current landing field said homes at the northwest corner sit directly under the final approach and suggested swapping that acreage for open space elsewhere in the project.

A veteran hang glider manufacturer and aviation safety expert said hang gliders get only one approach with no go-around, and the development intrudes on required clear airspace that cannot be mitigated by flight operations.

The co-owner of hang glider maker Willswing said the site is a unique national flight-test venue and urged denial or design changes preserving open airspace.

President of the Lynn Zaffron Free Flight Conservancy and an adjacent landowner, he said homes in the landing approach corridor are an incompatible, permanent land-use conflict.

Secretary of the Free Flight Conservancy, he formally asked the commission to continue the item so the environmental review could be updated with current conditions and public participation.

He presented GPS flight-track maps showing approach patterns and urged the commission to protect the federally mandated landing zone by denying approval or imposing strong conditions.

A lifelong hang glider pilot who lost his home in the Altadena fire said the site plan would make the air park unusable and unsafe and asked for mitigation.

A hang gliding instructor said the development would block the long, unobstructed approach students need, making the site unusable for training.

He cited a 1980s Los Angeles precedent where a developer deeded five acres to protect a hang gliding site, and asked the commission to table the item until concerns could be met.

The Crestline Soaring Society president detailed the club's 240 members, $1 million liability insurance, and 10,000 annual landings, and requested denial or a continuance to work with the developer.