New Millennium Group tackles El Toro again

Susan McCormack

Despite being dismissed by the city last winter as a “distraction” and

having its alternative plan for an airport at El Toro lambasted by the

county, the New Millennium Group is back with a revised plan and renewed

energy.

“We need to spread the word to all the supervisors and educate the

public,” said an enthusiastic Russell Niewiarowski, one of two full-time

members of the group, which will promote its plan at the Irvine City

Council meeting tonight and on KOCE-TV next week.

Last January, Balboa Island resident Charles Griffin, a one-time engineer

who designed airplanes for a living, and Niewiarowski, a Santa Ana

Heights resident and graphic artist, formed the group and joined the

debate by announcing a plan they deemed a compromise in the North versus

South County war over the El Toro Marine base.

The group had one mission: to create the safest, quietest, most

cost-efficient airport possible.

“We’re looking for the ultimate solution for no jets going over South

County homes,” Niewiarowski said.

In a step similar to the board of supervisors’, the duo has since scaled

down its original plan for an airport. The two are now working to gain

support from the city that most opposes the thought of any airport built

at El Toro: Irvine.

“They’re still going to fight to get flights out of their backyard,”

Niewiarowski said. “North County residents don’t really care what’s

happening with the airport because they’re far enough away that they’re

not going to be impacted.”

From there, Niewiarowski said the group will work on getting someone to

support an informational tour to educate those in South County about the

New Millennium Group’s ideas.

Last winter, the group unsuccessfully proposed that the former marine

base’s runways be changed from an “X” shape to a large “V” shape. This

would have been accomplished by extending the existing north-south runway

to the south about 6,000 feet to a total length of 17,000 feet,

eliminating the east-west runway and building a new runway at a 45-degree

angle heading southwest.

“People are more apt to support a ‘V’ pattern because they know that as

long as the east-west runway stays, the controversy stays,” Niewiarowski

explained, referring to the runway that would lead planes over Irvine,

according to the county’s plan.

However, officials involved in the airport issue, including county

consultant P&D; Aviation and the city of Newport Beach, said the plan was

not feasible because planes arriving from the north would not be able to

clear the mountainous terrain.

Niewiarowski said he has found an answer to the dilemma -- creating

V-shaped runways that are only 9,867 feet long.”The short V plan is more

than adequate,” Niewiarowski said. “There’s less steep of an angle.”

Tom Edwards, a longtime Newport Beach airport activist and member of the

county’s El Toro Citizens Advisory Commission, said he has discussed the

revised plan with the men, but doesn’t feel that introducing new plans at

this stage in the planning process is constructive.

“Frankly, all they’re doing is interrupting the process,” Edwards said.

“Even with their new proposal, they’re going to encounter new litigation.

They need to let the process move forward.”