Orange County Told to Halt Airport Expansion

Superior Court Judge Philip E. Schwab on Friday ordered Orange County to halt all work on a $150-million expansion plan for John Wayne Airport, reserving the right to roll back jet departures to 41 daily unless the county wins court approval for environmental studies supporting the expansion.

By the end of the day, all engineering and planning work for the new airport master plan had been halted, and county officials were left uncertain about the next step in their legal fight to construct a new 6-million-square-foot terminal and other facilities to handle up to 73 jet departures daily at the airport.

Also suspended were preparations to offer sound-insulation and purchase-assurance programs to residents of Santa Ana Heights--the small community near the departure end of John Wayne’s runways--who say they can no longer bear the sound of overflying jets. Assistance programs could have been available to those residents as early as February, 1986, if funding applications could have proceeded on schedule, county officials said.

“As of today, we have stopped all activity, per the judge’s order, until we get further clarification,” said airport manager Murry Cable.

Newport Beach officials were jubilant over the order--a tentative one, which cannot become final until sometime next month--though they may have lost their attempt to have the airport environmental studies reviewed in state court. Schwab ruled only that the studies had to be reviewed by a court “of competent jurisdiction,” and that could include the federal court, which the county has asked to take sole jurisdiction over the airport expansion issue.

Newport Beach did not ask the judge to set aside the limited expansion that took effect April 1, when jet flights were expanded from 41 daily to 55, citing the “inconvenience to the traveling public” that would occur if the already-booked flights were canceled. Schwab did not order a rollback, but he reserved the right to do so if necessary in order to enforce his order, which found county officials in contempt of a 1982 court injunction limiting jet flights to 41 a day.

“I’m deeply disappointed, and I don’t think I’ve ever been more disappointed at an airport matter since even before I was a supervisor,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas F. Riley, who lives beneath the airport flight path in Newport Beach.

Riley said he was primarily concerned with the judge’s order to halt plans to assist Santa Ana Heights residents, whom he characterized as victims in the airport expansion battle.

“A travesty of justice cries out here in the fact that those people have been forced to be a pawn between the Board of Supervisors and the City of Newport Beach in their own inability to fend for themselves,” he said.

Moreover, Newport Beach didn’t make any substantial gains as a result of the court’s decision, Riley said. “Why should they be happy? We have the same number of flights, the same number of people, the same damn traffic, and maybe more. I don’t see any winners except the judge, and if that’s the case, then so be it.”

Pierce O’Donnell, Newport Beach’s special airport counsel, said after the hearing: “We are ecstatic today that Judge Schwab has ruled in our favor and has brought to an immediate halt all activities related to expansion of the airport . . . . No planning, no engineering . . . they can put down their pencils as they did in 1982, because they’ve been stopped.”

Newport Beach Councilwoman Evelyn Hart said she was “delighted” with the ruling. Continued planning and engineering work on the master plan tends to commit the county to pursuing the master plan it has selected, rather than selecting another, less environmentally damaging alternative, she said.

“You do end up giving a certain amount of commitment to a project if you’re working on it. Maybe not legally, but just morally, you obligate yourself.”

Whether or not Newport Beach lost in its attempt to have the environmental impact report heard in state court--a forum city officials believe would be more protective of state environmental laws--was not clear.

Although Schwab left the county free to have the federal courts review the impact report along with issues of federal law related to the expansion plan, the timing constraints imposed by the order to stop planning and engineering work could mean that the county will go to whatever court can hear the case most quickly, said Michael Gatzke, the county’s special airport counsel.

Moreover, Newport Beach could persuade U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter Jr., who has issued a preliminary injunction against new litigation over the environmental report in state court, to lift the injunction and allow Schwab to decide on the adequacy of the report. An appeal by the county or an attempt to persuade Schwab to modify his order before it becomes final in the next few weeks are also options, Gatzke said.

“Sure, I’m disappointed,” he said. “We’re going to look at it and talk to the Board (of Supervisors) on Tuesday and proceed from there. We have a lot of options at this point.”

Neither side was certain how much of a delay Schwab’s ruling would mean in implementing the master plan, although O’Donnell estimated it could take from three to six months to win a judicial determination on the adequacy of the environmental impact report.

That would probably mean a delay of at least that long in expanding the airport to 73 flights with the new terminal--scheduled for 1990--and more immediately, a delay in offering assistance programs to Santa Ana Heights residents.

Gatzke had argued vigorously against including Santa Ana Heights planning in the scope of Schwab’s ban because of what he said were “some very important humanitarian issues” and the need to provide some certainty to community residents about their fate.

“There are some parochial interests that extend beyond the Board of Supervisors or even the county managing the airport; there are people out there we are concerned about,” he said.

After nearly a decade of battle over a long-term land-use plan for Santa Ana Heights, whose residents were divided between those who wished to keep the community rural and residential and those who wished to sell out to commercial developers, the new airport master plan settled on a compromise that would retain a small neighborhood near the center of the community while converting several other blocks to business parks.

The plan calls for offering noise insulation to many homeowners scheduled to remain, while providing purchase assurances to those in the noisiest areas of the community who want to sell their homes. Many residents are eager to begin taking advantage of those programs.

“We believe the uncertainty those people have lived with is one that needs immediate attention,” Cable said. County officials say they will ask Schwab to at least allow planning for Santa Ana Heights to continue, and Schwab did say his decision was “not cast in concrete” on that issue.

Ciska Stellhorn, president of the Back Bay Community Assn., said most residents were not expecting any help for the county for at least two to three years. But she said of the judge’s decision: “The unfortunate thing is it puts us in a state of flux again. Here we thought it was over with, and here we have this little ball hanging over our heads again. I think Santa Ana Heights one more time is being thrown in the middle of it.”

On the other hand, particularly for those residents who don’t want to move, she said, “Maybe it all gives us more time.”

Marianne Towersey, a resident of Birch Street, said she cannot sell her home on her own because it is scheduled for conversion to offices. Her only hope of leaving the area is for the county to buy the house, she said.

“I would think that if they’re going to put a delay on the purchase-assurance program, it would be my contention they should roll the flights back to 41 to improve the living conditions for those people who are subjected to the noise,” she said. “I don’t think it’s fair. I feel that if state law (under the state’s airport noise standards) has deemed that it’s unhealthy to be living under these conditions, that postponing our ability to move is against the law--or it should be against the law.”

An estimated 300 families in Santa Ana Heights will be eligible to be bought out by the county when money becomes available. An additional 400 families qualify for sound insulation.

Rich Adler, project manager for the county, said county officials were two-thirds of the way through an implementation plan that would have established the framework for the assistance programs, with funding possibly available early next year.

Now, the county will have to drop the study where it is. Moreover, county officials will not be able to proceed with redevelopment studies, he said. A consultant who was scheduled to begin work Friday measuring noise levels near homes in Santa Ana Heights was told not to come to work.

Adler said the irony of the judge’s ruling is that it allows the April 1 expansion to 55 flights to remain in place, “but we don’t get a chance to do any of the remedies. I just find that frustrating. I feel bad for them (Santa Ana Heights residents), but I can’t do anything about it. I guess I’m going to be saying that a lot on the phone next week.”

Attorneys for the county and Newport Beach are scheduled to present written arguments to Schwab during the next two weeks to help shape his final decision, although the county must comply with Friday’s order until--and if--it is modified.