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.”