El Toro opponents offer to fight John Wayne expansion
Greg Risling
LAKE FOREST -- A coalition of South County cities extended an olive
branch -- possibly for the last time -- to residents near John Wayne
Airport by officially opposing the expansion of the county’s only
airfield.
Members of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority recommended Monday that
the Orange County Board of Supervisors eliminate two alternative plans to
expand John Wayne Airport from its proposed airport at the closed El Toro
Marine Corps base. The two alternatives that call for John Wayne’s
expansion were part of an environmental impact report on the El Toro
project.
However, local airport activists have said they do not want to eliminate
the John Wayne expansion alternatives -- the same scenarios they use to
campaign for an El Toro airport. Eliminating the alternatives could make
the environmental report incomplete, and perhaps invalid under state law.
South County officials and Newport-Mesa leaders have been embroiled in a
epic battle over the county’s airport needs for the past several years.
The authority’s resolution appears to be a peace offering, but the
Newport-Mesa establishment isn’t convinced that the intent is genuine.
“I’m very suspicious of it,” said Newport Beach Councilman Gary Adams.
“Regardless of what alternatives are in the environmental impact report,
there would be a lot of pressure to expand John Wayne in a few years.
There is no doubt in our mind the county can’t survive with a little
airport. We need more capacity.”
El Toro opponents have on several occasions offered to join forces with
Costa Mesa and Newport Beach residents in fighting future expansion of
John Wayne Airport, and have been turned down each time.
Meg Waters, a spokeswoman for the coalition, said South County officials
are still willing to meet with Newport-Mesa residents about forging a
union to stop any build-out at the airfield.
“We have more to gain as allies than trying to force an airport at El
Toro down our throats,” Waters said.
Newport Beach officials have held their ground because any compromise
might warrant an expanded John Wayne. They have said they would rather
see an international airport at El Toro working in conjunction with
limited flights arriving and departing from John Wayne.
However, city leaders are most worried about the uncertainty of John
Wayne Airport’s future when a court-ordered passenger cap at the airport
is lifted in five years.
“What is their [South County’s] solution?” asked Tom Naughton, president
of the Newport Beach-based Airport Working Group, a pro-El Toro
organization. “Just because they say we want to work with you doesn’t
really mean much. There has never been a plan from them except to talk.”
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