EL TORO DEBATE

The anti-airport people need to show to the people of Orange County, who

have voted in favor of El Toro Airport on two separate occasions, an

alternative to El Toro that will be better for the long-term solution to

Orange County’s transportation.

John Wayne Airport has the shortest commercial runway in the country.

Total land size of John Wayne Airport is just 470 acres with developed

property on all sides.

El Toro encompasses more than 18,000 acres with the airport and open

areas surrounding it. You could put 39 John Wayne Airports inside those

boundaries.

It only makes sense to utilize this gift to Orange County to serve our

future.

The air transportation solution is not expansion of John Wayne Airport

because there is not enough land. It is not a high-speed rail to a

distant airport. A high-speed rail does not exist, is not economically

feasible, and would not be practical for residents coming from all over

Orange County.

The solution is not driving the freeway to LAX or Ontario. The freeways

are clogged for most the day, and that will only get worse in the years

to come.

South County residents must consider the very long-term needs of all of

Orange County’s residents and either provide a better alternative than El

Toro, or get involved in the planning process in a positive way to make

El Toro airport the best possible solution.

DAVE BENT

Newport Beach

John Wayne Airport in Newport Beach has been handling the airway needs of

Orange County and surrounding areas for more than 20 years. It is time

for the citizens and businesses of Orange County to gather together and

share all the concerns about making El Toro an airport.

With two airports we can support future growth for our beautiful, unique

and desirable county. Our citizens and businesses will need both airports

in the near future. There will be restricted flight hours like at John

Wayne Airport.

We need to rally together and share the load. This is not just a Newport

Beach problem. We all share in this growth by having children,

grandchildren, great-grandchildren, businesses, culture and recreation in

Orange County. The concerns belong to all of us.

If there is another city in Orange County that has room and wants an

airport, then build it there. We need another airport.

ROCHELLE LISS

Corona del Mar

AWAY FROM HOME

Suppose the Marines had announced they were staying at El Toro

permanently, but that all noisy fighter jet operations would cease

immediately. For the next 10 to 15 years, they would be replaced by

relatively small numbers of much quieter commercial-type transport jets

while the facility was being prepared for increased operations by a new

breed of even quieter jets.

There could be only one plausible reaction to such a pronouncement: a

unanimous sigh of relief from the surrounding communities.

But that scenario mirrors exactly what the county has proposed for El

Toro. Why then the mass hysteria? Why the initiative that would stop

progress throughout the county? Why the Millennium Plan, which would

convert a virtually extinct asset in this country -- an available airport

facility surrounded by a huge residence-free noise buffer zone -- into a

white elephant, which in the unlikely event it were ever successful would

generate more traffic congestion and air pollution than a commercial

airport?

There is only one plausible explanation for this reaction. Let’s say it

all together: Those folks down there in South County see the closure of

El Toro as their entitlement, and to hell with the rest of the county.

They won’t settle for anything less than a reversion to the bean field El

Toro was 50-plus years ago, when not a single one of them lived anywhere

near it.

DAN EMORY

Huntington Beach

Orange County can be served with no John Wayne expansion and no El Toro

airport. For example, March Inland Port in Riverside is well situated to

handle Southern California air cargo. San Diego leaders are looking for a

new commercial airport location, beginning in their north. Ontario, which

has recently tripled in capacity, is ready to serve North Orange County.

Those who live near John Wayne should not bet all their energy and money,

and that of the city of Newport Beach, on a doomed attempt to move jets

from their backyard to those of unwilling Orange County neighbors a few

miles away. Don’t put all your eggs in the one El Toro basket. El Toro

probably will not be built.

Newport Beach accounts for only 3% of Orange County’s voters. Eight South

County cities are determined to block El Toro for as long as it takes.

Rep. Christopher Cox and Ron Packard back the Safe and Healthy

Communities Initiative, which will pass. Polls show that an overwhelming

majority of county voters want to revisit the El Toro issue, and when

they do, that airport will not fly.

It makes sense for Newport Beach citizens and their leaders to support a

cause in which everyone wins. Support development of systems for getting

Orange County passengers and freight to outlying airports that want the

business.

Protect yourself against the expansion of John Wayne by working for

consensus on sensible regional airport plans that put airports out where

they belong -- and where they will be accepted.

LEONARD KRANSER

Editor, El Toro Airport Info. Site

Dana Point