Editorial

With the historic settlement agreement that limited flights at John

Wayne Airport set to expire in 2005, and a commercial airport at El Toro

far from being realized, Newport Beach and Costa Mesa officials are

rightly worrying these days over what future air traffic growth will mean

to their communities.

And they are taking action. Newport Beach, in concert with the Airport

Working Group, a citizen coalition originally formed to fight airport

expansion at John Wayne, has embarked on an effort to extend that

settlement agreement into the year 2026 with minor growth in flights.

And just last month, the city of Costa Mesa joined the fray and handed

the Airport Working Group $15,000 to spend toward extending those flight

restrictions at John Wayne.

What transpired after that stunned Costa Mesa officials. The Airport

Working Group this month gave Costa Mesa back its money, saying thanks

but no thanks. The reason for the snub? Costa Mesa officials wanted the

money solely spent on John Wayne issues, not for the promotion of an

airport at El Toro.

We find the refusal of the money surprising also, especially

considering the Newport Beach-based Airport Working Group has a long

history of fighting the expansion of John Wayne Airport.

Reaching its peak in the early 1980s, the group, stocked with bright

minds like Barbara Lichman and former mayors Clarence Turner and Tom

Edwards, was a force to be reckoned with on the county scene. Indeed the

historic airport settlement agreement in 1985 was struck between the

county, the FAA, the airlines, the city of Newport Beach, the Airport

Working Group and the environmental group, Stop Polluting Our Newport.

The residents of Newport-Mesa owe a great debt to those early

pioneers. Today, the Airport Working Group’s focus has shifted and its

leaders believe an El Toro airport is the answer to John Wayne woes. In

fact, the group’s consultant, Dave Ellis, recently said the two issues

can’t be separated.

“It’s like hot dogs and a baseball game,” Ellis said. “You can’t talk

about one without the other.”

But that is simply not true. In fact, Newport Beach officials are

doing exactly that today, talking about one without the other.

With the blessings of the very same Airport Working Group, the city of

Newport Beach is holding discussions with county officials over the new

John Wayne settlement agreement, and the issue of El Toro is not even on

the table.

Having said that, though, we also wonder what is the harm in allowing

the Airport Working Group to discuss with Costa Mesa residents why El

Toro is a viable option to the air travel dilemma.

Surely, the people of Costa Mesa are capable of hearing all the facts

and making up their own minds on whether or not an El Toro airport is an

idea that should be supported.

So we urge the Airport Working Group and the city of Costa Mesa to put

political differences aside and instead work together on the airport

fight.

Like those early pioneers in the airport battle, they too can achieve

the common goal of keeping John Wayne expansion at a manageable level and

maybe even come up with solutions for the county’s future air travel

needs.