Anti-El Toro camp fires back at Newport Beach meeting

Stacy Brown

NEWPORT BEACH -- A top El Toro airport foe has said that last week’s

meeting in Newport Beach served only to blatantly mislead residents and

scare them into supporting a commercial airport at the former Marine

Corps base.

“I was very disturbed to see how people were being scared with these

horror tales of how John Wayne will double and triple if there isn’t an

airport at El Toro,” said anti-El Toro airport activist Leonard Kranser.

“I don’t know of any responsible group that would support that kind of an

expansion,” he said. “We know that Newport Beach has been opposed to any

expansion of John Wayne for 20 years, and I can understand that. But what

is unfortunate is that the government there is taking the position of

scaring their residents into action.”

Last Thursday, a meeting at the Newport Beach Central Library attracted

more than 300 people who listened as the mayor and other airport

proponents touted El Toro as the best viable option for Orange County.

Airport Working Group director Richard Taylor told the audience that the

county had two alternatives to El Toro, neither of which would be

feasible.

“The impact of noise would be significantly greater under those plans,”

Taylor said. “If El Toro is not built, John Wayne will unfortunately be

the only game in town.”

Kranser, who also attended the meeting, said speeches by Taylor and

Newport Beach Mayor Dennis O’Neil were examples of the many scare tactics

used to create support among voters in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.

“The tone of the meeting was certainly to get people riled up, and that

was an irresponsible tactic,” Kranser said. “They presented only one

alternative, and they told the people that if El Toro isn’t built, they

will tear down Newport Beach and Costa Mesa. That’s untrue.”

Proponents of El Toro said the meeting was called simply to keep

residents informed and answer any questions.

“We felt that there was an element of complacency in this corridor,” said

Airport Working Group head Tom Naughton.

“Many were thinking that El Toro was a done deal, but it’s not. I was

pleasantly surprised by the turnout, especially since, at that time of

night, people have a lot of other things to do.”Kranser said the group

Seniors Against El Toro will hold a meeting Friday at 7 p.m. in Heritage

Park to discuss the latest in the airport debate. County Supervisor Tom

Wilson is scheduled to speak at the meeting.