Packard Says He Sides With South County Airport Opponents

SAN CLEMENTE —  Rep. Ron Packard met privately Wednesday with representatives of 10 South County homeowners associations, saying he shared their mounting opposition to a commercial airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Packard also met with civic leaders in Laguna Beach and with private individuals in Laguna Hills and the Leisure World retirement village who are fighting the airport project.

“It’s absolutely bizarre that we would put a major airport right in the middle of one of the most populated areas of the country,” said Packard, whose Republican district begins in San Diego County and extends north to Laguna Niguel and Laguna Hills.

Packard said the Federal Aviation Administration had not done an adequate job of evaluating the technical and safety concerns of an El Toro airport and that the cleanup of a longtime military base poses major environmental issues that, so far, have been largely overlooked.

He said momentum for a new airport is not working for South County, which he said had not been properly heard on an issue that threatens to be “of grave concern” to the lives of its residents for “generations to come.”

John Zarian, 34, an attorney who lives in the gated community of Coto de Caza, praised Packard for meeting airport foes.

Zarian said Packard pledged to meet on future occasions with South County residents in Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Rancho Santa Margarita and Coto de Caza--the communities represented at Wednesday’s meeting.

Citing a litany of economic and environmental concerns, Zarian said: “All of these things suggest to me that we can certainly find a better approach and probably a better result, rather than what the monied interests and north Orange County have forced upon the residents of South County so far.”