CITY PROSECUTION OF "PROHIBITED OPERATIONS" TO BEGIN IN MAY

At the Airport Commission meeting on 4/9/2026, the Noise Abatement Report for the 4th Quarter of 2025 was presented. Some surprising findings:

1. There was no information about airport complaints.
2. There were only 46 noise violations for the quarter (about 1 every 3 days)
3. There were 1,901 "violations" of operations "prohibited" by the Torrance Municipal Code (TMC)

My review of the 4th quarter complaints revealed that there were 894 complaints in the quarter.

• 78% of them were non-complaints and listed only an aircraft N-number and sometimes an aircraft owner.
• 2% were about loud neighbors, dogs barking, loud music or other non-aviation complaints
• 14% mentioned some operation "prohibited" by the TMC.

As you may recall, most of these complaints are submitted via the Casper Monitoring System, which was procured and installed several years ago. Others, according to the Complaint Logs, were submitted via e-mail to Noise Abatement Department.

The most contentious item was the report of 1,901 "prohibited" operations. This is 8% of all airport operations during the quarter. The Commissioners were very engaged in questioning Greg Lodan (Community Development Department). We learned:

• The Community Development Department is planning to prosecute these "violators" beginning in May 2026. The judge in these hearings will be a Hearing Executive hired by the City. In effect, the City of Torrance will be the policeman, investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner all in one--no judicial review in the process.
• The source for identifying these operations, according to Mr Lodan, is the Casper Monitoring System, although he could not explain how that is done with a noise monitoring system. If they are using the complaint recording part of the system, that brings into question the validity of these reports.

In a 1/23/2024 letter to the Torrance City Attorney, Justine Harrison (AOPA Chief Counsel) explained the City's lack of authority to prohibit any flight operations due to FAA's exclusive authority to regulate in that area and recommended that he contact the FAA's Aviation Litigation Division to discuss the City's planned Municipal Code revisions. He apparently ignored her letter.

I asked a number of questions about the City's plan to begin prosecution of "prohibited" operation "violatios."