Supervisor raises concerns about FAA report
Paul Clinton
NEWPORT-MESA -- A letter from a South County supervisor to Federal
Aviation Administrator Jane Garvey is only a last-minute political ploy
on the eve of an important vote, a Newport Beach airport consultant said.
“This is a pattern we’ve seen preceding any key vote,” said Dave
Ellis, the spokesman of the Airport Working Group. “I call it the
11th-hour desperation effort.”
Supervisor Todd Spitzer, in the Monday letter, said an Oct. 9 report
by the FAA “raises extremely significant issues” about the financial
viability of an airport at the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.
In his letter, Spitzer said he was concerned the airport wouldn’t be
able to tap into a pool of federal grant money, which could jeopardize
the county’s effort to raise airport revenue bonds to pay for
construction.
While Spitzer could not be reached for comment, a spokeswoman for the
El Toro Reuse Planning Authority echoed the critique.
“If they can’t get federal funding, I doubt the bond market will have
much interest in it,” authority spokeswoman Meg Waters said.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors is set to offer a final vote on
an airport for the base at today’s meeting. Supervisors have said they
would choose a smaller airport than the on-the-books plan. Instead of an
airport that would handle 28.8 million passengers in 2020, supervisors
are aiming for a facility to handle 18.8 million.
“[T]he county may be proceeding down a dead-end path while spending
enormous amounts of public money unnecessarily and in an effort that will
ultimately prove futile,” Spitzer wrote in the letter.
A spokesman at the FAA’s Western Regional office couldn’t be reached
for comment on the letter.
In his letter, Spitzer, who did not return calls for comment, also
listed a number of bullet-point questions about the FAA’s report, which
declared the county’s airport plan safe, but not the most efficient use
of airspace.
The letter didn’t raise any alarms in the offices of the county’s
airport-planning Local Redevelopment Authority, spokeswoman Michelle
Emard said.
“There’s nothing new in there,” Emard said. “They’re trying to
manufacture an issue. We don’t have a high level of concern about it.”
* Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may
be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at o7
paul.clinton@latimes.comf7 .
FYI
* WHAT: Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting
* WHEN: 9:30 a.m. today
* WHERE: Board Hearing Room, 10 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana
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