O.C. approves extending John Wayne Airport pact to 2035

Noise regulations at Orange County’s John Wayne Airport will remain among the tightest in the nation under the terms of an agreement extension that was approved Tuesday after years of negotiations.

In a trade-off, though, the airport — now Southern California’s third busiest — would be allowed to increase the number of daily departures to accommodate millions of additional passengers.

“It seems like the day I was elected, it was like, ‘Let’s work on this settlement agreement,’” said Supervisor John Moorlach, elected eight years ago to represent the district that includes the airport. “It’s been a long process, but I’m pleased with the results.”

The agreement extension was approved by county supervisors but must still be reviewed by the Newport Beach City Council and a U.S. district court.

The existing agreement was set to expire in 2015. The extension will keep the airport’s strict flight curfew in place until 2035, a victory for Newport Beach residents who have fought for decades to limit the noise of jets thundering over their homes.

The extension would also allow passenger and flight caps to starting climbing in 2021.

Because the county was allowed to grandfather in its airport regulations after the 1990 passage of the federal Airport Noise and Capacity Act, which made it all but impossible to impose new airport curfews, negotiators had to strike a careful balance.

Although Newport Beach residents have pushed hard to keep existing passenger and flight caps, officials cautioned that the airport must be allowed to grow or community members would risk having those regulations thrown out altogether.

This year, the county grand jury issued a report suggesting that the noise regulations could be hurting the airport’s potential economic effect on the region, a position that ruffled city leaders and residents.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer, whose district encompasses cities under the airport’s arrival corridor, said that although the airport is an economic driver for the county, “I’ve never taken the position that Newport Beach should absorb the expansion of John Wayne Airport.”

John Wayne’s noise-based curfews prohibit commercial departures and arrivals before 7 a.m. Mondays through Saturdays and before 8 a.m. Sundays. Departures are prohibited after 10 p.m. daily, arrivals after 11 p.m., except in emergencies.

According to the agreement, a cap on annual passengers would remain at 10.8 million through 2020. The following year, though, the number would rise to 11.8 million.

In 2026, the passenger cap would climb again, potentially reaching 12.5 million by 2030.

Starting in 2021, the number of passenger flights would increase from an average of 85 daily departures to 95.

jill.cowan@latimes.com