Residents Sue City Over Permit For Commercial Airpot Operations

SANTA MONICA—Residents of Santa Monica are suing the city for the commercial operations permit it granted to Santa Monica Airport to allow passenger air service. The names of the residents suing are Alan Levenson and Zina Josephs. They are working with the environmental non-profit Measure LC Defense. They filed the lawsuit last week in the Los Angeles Superior Court. In the lawsuit, they claim that the city of Santa Monica violated the California Environmental Quality Act on October 9, 2025, when they permitted Delux Public Charter LLC, which operates as JSX Air, to begin conducting daily flights as the city made its decision using exemptions to avoid performing a comprehensive environmental review before making a significant change to the airport’s operations as it never had daily scheduled passenger air service before. In addition, the lawsuit claims the city of Santa Monica overlooked many environmental concerns, including the increased pollution the flights would cause and the impact this would have on local communities. In response to these claims, the city of Santa Monica has exercised no discretion when considering JSX Air’s request for the permit. The city of Santa Monica claimed that the approval of the permit was exempt under a categorical exemption for negligible expansion of existing facilities, as well as under the “common sense” exemption. They claimed the decision was a ministerial action, which gives the city manager permission to operate with discretion when considering denying or issuing commercial operations permits. Residents have disputed these claims noting that the city failed to properly review the lease that JSX will need to make on space at the airport. The petitioners are seeking a writ of mandate compelling the city to rescind the permit approval and an injunction preventing Santa Monica from permitting JSK to operate at the airport until the city has fully complied with the requirements for an environmental review.   By Daniel Diquinzio