The original lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in April 2024. It sought the repeal of Torrance Municipal Code (TMC) sections 51.5.1 through 51.5.7 and the vacating of Torrance Ordinance 3930 (which bans touch/stop and go operations at any time and allows full-stop-taxi-back and low approaches only at certain times). ZAPS claims the City has no authority to do so because the US Government has exclusive sovereignty of airspace of the United States. The lawsuit alleges that these attempts by the City to regulate the airspace above Torrance or the Airport are preempted, invalid, and unenforceable.
The City of Torrance responded to the ZAPS complaint, denying all of the allegations it contained.
The City later requested that the suit be removed to Federal Court. ZAPS agreed.
On 16 January 2025, the City finally provided the Administrative Record, which is a copy of all of the memos, correspondence and e-mails related to the allegations in the suit. It consists of 660 documents.
The Central District of California offers three Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) options:
On 1/22/2025, the United States District Court's Central District of California issued the following order:
MINUTE ORDER IN CHAMBERS - ORDER AND NOTICE TO ALL PARTIES by Judge Consuelo B. Marshall.
The Court has reviewed the joint status report and sets the following deadlines: