Council hopes to extend airport restrictions

Noaki Schwartz

NEWPORT BEACH -- While plans for an airport at El Toro remain

uncertain, the City Council on Tuesday will redouble its efforts to

extend the curfew and flight restrictions at John Wayne Airport to the

end of 2025.

Three months ago, Mayor John Noyes announced that he and the council

would urge the Orange County Board of Supervisors to extend the terms of

a 1985 settlement agreement -- set to expire in 2005 -- that limits the

number of flights and passengers at the airport.

The settlement agreement caps the number of annual passengers to 8.4

million and allows no more than 73 daily departures. It also bans

departures between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and

between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. on Sundays. Also, arrivals are banned from 11

p.m. and 7 a.m. Sunday through Saturday.

The city’s proposal would essentially maintain the caps.

The council’s first step will be a resolution urging Orange County

supervisors to get on board with the project.

However, it may not be so easy, or legal, to extend the settlement

agreement. Federal laws passed since 1985 prohibit regional airport

restrictions, such as the curfew and limits on certain aircraft that are

imposed at John Wayne.

San Francisco attorney Clem Shutewill is counsel to the city on

airport issues.

The city will also arrange for environmental studies that are required

by state law. City officials will meet with the director of John Wayne

Airport, officials from surrounding cities and other interested parties.

“I think this is absolutely where the focus of energy should be right

now,” said former Newport Beach mayor Tom Edwards, who helped secure the

original settlement agreement. “We’ve got to take care of ourselves

first. I still believe El Toro is a solution.”

Other John Wayne activists say the city must be prepared to

potentially fend off some airlines that would prefer to see the

restrictions lifted. Also, Newport may need to enlist anti-El Toro South

County to its cause.

“In 1985, the city of Irvine sued to stop the settlement from

occurring,” warned Dave Ellis of the Newport Beach-based Airport Working

Group, which worked on the settlement agreement.

Ellis added that despite the long road ahead, the organization would

stand behind the council’s effort.

South County residents who oppose an airport at the former Marine

Corps Air Station at El Toro have long said they would help Newport Beach

in its efforts to maintain limits at John Wayne -- on one condition.

“[The El Toro Reuse Planning Authority] applauds and supports that

effort and we hope they will then join us,” said Meg Waters, spokeswoman

for the coalition of South County cities. “We have offered to help them

in that effort, providing they help us. We think it would be the height

of hypocrisy to get their restrictions and then impose an airport on our

community.”

FYI

Key points in Newport Beach’s proposal to maintain restrictions at

John Wayne Airport:

* A 20-year extension of the terms of the John Wayne settlement

agreement, with a new expiration date of Dec. 31, 2025

* Same number of annual passengers -- 8.4 million

* Same number of noise-regulated passenger flights -- 73 daily

departures

* Same number of cargo flights

* Same curfew on flights