New Airport Parking Lot Waiting to Be Discovered

So far, Ronald Straughn’s job has been easy.

Straughn is the parking attendant at John Wayne Airport’s new long-term lot, and thus far business has been pretty slow. It was so slow, in fact, that a day and a half after it had opened Thursday, the lot had served only seven customers.

“Not too many people know it’s open,” Straughn said, but he added that the lot’s $3-a-day rate should draw a fair number of customers. “I think (we’ll) get a lot more business here because it’s cheaper.”

Straughn, a Santa Ana resident, and his co-workers agree that the new lot, on Main Street in Newport Beach just north of the airport runway, will soon receive its full share of use, both because of its cost and the congestion at the airport’s other lots.

Predicts More Use

“I would imagine by next weekend it will catch on pretty good,” said Dennis Morris, branch manager for Ampco Parking, the company that runs the lot. Morris believes between 200 and 300 customers will use the lot daily by the end of next week, and up to 900, “maybe more,” in a month.

The new lot--called the North Parking Facility--has 1,800 spaces, compared with 1,071 spaces in the short-term lot, 777 in the long-term lot and 600 in the overflow lot. A full day’s parking costs $10 in the short-term lot and $6 in the other two existing lots.

Shuttle buses run the terminal-to-parking-lots loop approximately every 20 minutes, Morris said. And while the bus takes only four or five minutes to travel the mile from the lot to the passenger terminal when roads are clear, “with traffic that’s a different story,” said bus driver Gus Vanreed.

A ride during rush hour could take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the traffic lights, Morris guessed.

If and when the airport builds the proposed expanded passenger terminal, the new lot will become the airport’s only supplementary parking lot. Both the current long-term and overflow lots will be eliminated, resulting in the loss of their 1,377 spaces, airport official Bill Hodge said.

Expansion Planned

A new terminal will bring with it some more additional parking, he added, to serve its enlarged capacity. But he conceded that the expansion, scheduled in the master plan to begin in 1987, probably will be delayed because of litigation.

But in the meantime, both airport officials and airport users are happy with the availability of additional parking. Before the lot opened, the airport had three times this year completely filled its three lots, Hodge said.

Officials hope the new lot will relieve rush-hour traffic on MacArthur Boulevard in front of the airport, and also ease congestion in the other three lots, Morris said.

Chaunce Benedict of Santa Ana was just happy to be able to park without a hassle. He likened the airport at rush hour to “an ant hill with kerosene poured on it,” adding that “the other lots are very crowded.”

Benedict, 57, was departing on a weeklong business trip to Atlanta, and said he will save $21 by parking in the new lot. “It’s a real blessing to see this come into being,” he said.