REBUTTAL

I’m writing in response to what anti-El Toro activist Leonard Kranser

said in a recent article, “Anti-El Toro camp fires back at Newport Beach

meeting” (Aug. 17). He states that an airport informational workshop at

the Newport Beach Central Library was a scare tactic used to help support

a commercial airport at El Toro.

Well, Newport Beach should be scared. John Wayne Airport has already

undergone one expansion. Why shouldn’t we fear another? We opposed the

first expansion and had to fight hard to get the limitation on flights

and curfew we now have.

However in the year 2005, we will no longer have this protection. Why was

there an expiration date on these flight limits and curfew? Because

planners knew Orange County would grow to the point where we would have

to increase the number of flights and lift the curfew to meet the growing

transportation needs of our county.

Mr. Kranser writes: “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 in El Toro.” If these are horror tales, why

isn’t it being studied in the environmental impact report as an

alternative to El Toro airport. These horror tales are Plan F and Plan G.

He writes: “I don’t know of any responsible group that would support that

kind of an expansion.” If El Toro airport doesn’t happen, it would be the

same group that supported the first expansion at John Wayne Airport --

businesses and people needing to travel. Now there are more of them.

Maybe now is the time for Newport residents to ask the question: What if

El Toro Airport doesn’t happen?

LINDA WOOTERS

Newport Beach