Alternative airport supporters set hopes on March election

Deirdre Newman

SANTA ANA HEIGHTS -- Efforts to get an alternative El Toro airport on

the November ballot are in a holding pattern, but supporters hope they

will have enough fuel to launch it in the March election instead.

The New Millennium Group, which supports a V-plan design for the

closed Marine base, has conceded that it will not have the signatures

needed to get the initiative on the next ballot.

The V-plan calls for sending planes to the southwest over undeveloped

land, instead of over homes in Irvine, Lake Forest and other cities. It

is an alternate option to the airport county supervisors envisioned,

which voters defeated in March when they passed Measure W.

Supporters contend they just don’t have enough time and money to get

71,206 signatures by the June 17 deadline. Although they have been trying

to get signatures for the past few months, they now say it’s premature to

sell another airport plan when the fate of Measure W hangs in the

balance. The Airport Working Group filed a lawsuit against the measure

soon after it passed.

“If [the court] is able to overturn that, like they did Measure F --

which nobody thought they could -- then that would be a good time for us

to parade out the benefits of [the V-plan,]” said Bob McGowan, a member

of the New Millennium Group.

Don’t hold your breath, airport opponents say.

“I think [the lawsuit] is a major uphill stroke for them,” said Bill

Kogerman, chairman for the Committee for Safe and Healthy Communities,

which opposes an airport at El Toro. “I think we did our homework and our

legal process appropriately.”

Efforts to add the V-plan to a ballot have encountered significant

opposition from Kogerman’s committee, which has alleged the group’s

initiative and petition drive are unconstitutional and violate election

laws.

While V-plan supporters have bombarded the three pro-airport

supervisors with requests to put the initiative on the November ballot,

so far the supervisors have not acquiesced.

Even if support for the V-plan is totally extinguished, supporters say

they will still press for other options to enable Orange County to meet

its fair share of the region’s aviation demands.

Russell Niewiarowski, president of the New Millennium Group, is

floating the ideas of building an international airport at Seal Beach or

dramatically expanding passenger capacity at John Wayne Airport.

Niewiarowski said John Wayne has the potential to handle as many as 14

million annual passengers -- double its current load -- by extending the

runway by 1,000 feet to the north and south and using the Global

Positioning System to fly heavier planes.

“My heart instinct is not to see that happen,” said Niewiarowski, a

Santa Ana Heights resident. “I’m just being realistic. Not like my

friends in Irvine who say, “Oh, we can just shove it elsewhere.’ I’m

saying, ‘Where do we shove it?”’