Supervisors launch review of JWA flight cap extension

Paul Clinton

SANTA ANA -- Ignoring protests from its two minority members, the

Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday began a process that could

extend flight restrictions at John Wayne Airport.

The three-member majority, including Supervisor Jim Silva, whose

district includes Costa Mesa, approved initiating an environmental review

of the proposed extension.

The deal, crafted during five months of staff-level meetings with

Newport Beach, was announced Friday. Under preliminary terms, the

airport’s cap on annual passengers would be raised 16%, from 8.4 million

to 9.8 million.

That cap, which limits daily departures to 73, and other restrictions

are set to expire in 2005. The cap began in 1985 via a settlement

agreement.

While Supervisor Chuck Smith has said environmental review should get

underway, Supervisor Tom Wilson opposed the move. Wilson, whose district

includes vast stretches of South County, said the start of the formal

process is premature.

The board will receive a status report May 26.

“I think it was rushed through the system,” Wilson said after the

meeting. “I don’t think it was thought out well enough.”

In exchange for the increase in air traffic capacity at John Wayne,

Newport Beach officials want long-term extensions of other flight limits.

The city also proposes adding four flight gates to the current 14,

combining two noise classes and extending the curfew until Jan. 1, 2026.

Once the gates are built, the county can add 12 additional departures

per day, increase limits on seat capacity and cap cargo flights at two

per day.

The county, city and two airport activist groups -- the Airport

Working Group and Stop Polluting Our Newport -- must all agree to the

extension.

Newport Beach’s proposal is bound to change in future talks, but

Wilson lamented that other affected parties weren’t brought to the table.

“I expected to see Newport Beach, county staff, and the [Federal

Aviation Authority] standing in front of us singing out of the same

songbook,” Wilson said. “If this was a train on the fast track, it looked

like the train was leaving the station and I was getting off.”