Building Could Interfere With KLAX Radar

For years, the National Football League has wanted a team in Los Angeles. The nation's second-largest television market has been without an NFL franchise since the Raiders returned to Oakland in northern California in 1994.

The most recent team reportedly set to move to LA is the St. Louis Rams. The franchise has a history in LA. But the plan to move the team to LA into a shiny new stadium in Inglewood, CA has run into an unexpected roadblock, in the form of the FAA.

The agency on Monday issued a 27-page report that in its essence says that the stadium in its present location would be a "presumed hazard to navigation" in that it could interfere with the radar that tracks inbound to LKAX. According to the Los Angeles Times, the report states that "The configuration of the stadium between the two runways coupled with the uncertainty of its reflective properties is the root cause of the objection to this proposal."

The report comes as the proposed stadium has been entitled and designed, and planners say that much of the work to prepare the 290-acre site for construction has been completed.

The FAA has offered some possible solutions, including reducing the height of the building by more than 100 feet, reshaping the exterior, or covering some of the surfaces in a material that is absorptive rather than reflective. A "stealth" stadium, perhaps.

The FAA began its review of the project in June. It found that the building's height could create false images of aircraft, or garble images seen by controllers on radar screens. "This is a critical area requiring precision monitoring of all aircraft activity," the report said.

The LA Times reports that a spokesman for the FAA stressed that the report is not the final word on the subject, but rather an opening point for negotiations with the project's backers. The project's managers told the paper that the FAA report was nothing that was outside the normal course of doing business.

FMI: www.faa.gov