Meeting on John Wayne expansion planned for Costa Mesa

Susan McCormack

COSTA MESA -- Mayor Gary Monahan and the Newport Beach-based Airport

Working Group will host a community briefing on the potential expansion

of John Wayne Airport on Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Costa Mesa

Community Center.

Monahan said that this issue is the “most important quality of life

issue” to emerge recently in Costa Mesa. “If John Wayne is allowed to

triple in size ... it will be devastating to the properties in Costa

Mesa, not only from sounds and traffic upheaval, but the fact that

they’re taking all these properties to do it.”

Monahan, Airport Working Group members Tom Naughton, Rick Taylor and

Bonnie O’Neil and Tom Wall, executive director of the Orange County

Airport Alliance, are scheduled to speak about what could happen if an

airport is not built at the former El Toro marine base and the county

expands John Wayne to accommodate growing air transportation needs.

The Southern California Association of Governments has projected that by

2020, more than 20 million passengers will use Orange County airports.

John Wayne currently serves about seven million passengers and is capped

through 2005 at eight million.

The meeting will take place in Adams Room at the community center, 1845

Park Ave.