Office Tower Blocks Key Signal; Airport Threatens Lawsuit

Escalating the battle against high-rise encroachment near John Wayne Airport, the airport’s manager said Thursday that the county may sue a developer and the City of Santa Ana over an office tower that rendered a key navigation system inoperable.

The controversy involves a partially built, 10-story Hutton Center office tower that is deflecting signals from John Wayne Airport’s Vor (very high frequency omnidirectional range) transmitter. The transmitter beacon provides weather information over a voice channel and, on another, non-voice channel, helps pilots determine their position in relation to the airport.

George Rebella, the airport manager, said the county may seek a court order to “tear down the building” in Hutton Center but cautioned that such action is unlikely. “We’re interested in collecting damages,” Rebella said, without specifying an amount.

Fails Test

The Federal Aviation Administration turned off the Vor on Jan. 28, and this week announced that the transmitter failed an FAA flight check when it was retested last Friday.

Absence of the Vor concentrates all aircraft approaching John Wayne Airport into a narrow airspace over Tustin, where residents are worried about noise from more air traffic and increased odds of an accident occurring over their homes. Once over Tustin, pilots fly the airport’s so-called instrument landing approach, which takes them down a glide path parallel to the Costa Mesa Freeway. Most airline and corporate jets were using the Tustin approach--almost exclusively--before the Vor shutdown.

Still, some pilots were using the Vor approach, which takes aircraft over south Santa Ana.

The steel girders of the controversial office tower are rising near the intersection of MacArthur Boulevard and the Costa Mesa Freeway.

Action Outlined

At a news conference in his office Thursday afternoon, Rebella said the county’s lawyers will file a request under the Freedom of Information Act for copies of all correspondence between the Federal Aviation Administration and both the city and the developer to help determine what court action, if any, may be appropriate. FAA officials, who were unavailable late Thursday afternoon, require FOI requests before they release correspondence files, Rebella said.

Officials of Tobishima Development Co., the building’s owner, failed to return telephone calls from The Times on Thursday afternoon.

But Santa Ana City Atty. Edward J. Cooper said Thursday that city officials never had any legal basis for denying the developer a building permit, even after the FAA complained in a May 6, 1986, letter that the structure would be a “presumed hazard” to navigation.

FAA officials previously said they were caught by surprise when the developer began pouring concrete and erecting steel girders in late December and early January without having responded to the letter of May, 1986, which included instructions to advise the agency of remedial efforts to correct the problem.

‘Not Really a Hazard’

“As I have been reading it, it’s not really a hazard,” Cooper said. “Some aircraft may have to use a different approach to the airport, but that’s not a hazard. . . . The airport should solve its own problems.”

Cooper admitted that Santa Ana is the only city near the airport that has not adopted development ordinances regulating such construction, as requested by the county Airport Land Use Commission. Cooper said he did not know why Santa Ana had not enacted such ordinances, but added that the city Planning Commission is studying the issue.

Rebella said the California Department of Transportation’s aviation division had the legal authority to stop construction of the Hutton Center tower, which is one of four high-rises at the same site, but did not do so because of a failure of communication between the FAA and the state agency.

Caltrans officials also could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Other Projects Monitored

Meanwhile, Rebella said that 20 other building projects in the airport area are under continuous review to prevent similar problems.

He said a group of developers has agreed to help foot the bill--perhaps as high as $65,000--to test placement of a new Vor on top of a building near the airport. He declined to identify the building or its owner.

Also, Rebella said, the FAA is testing an alternate approach to John Wayne that utilizes a similar navigational beacon in Pomona. Using the Pomona transmitter, he said, planes could follow the same path over south Santa Ana that previously was used.

Rebella added that the FAA and the airport staff also are studying whether it is possible to switch to an instrument-landing system that would use less-vulnerable microwave transmissions. Such a system was scheduled for installation in 1990 anyway, under the airport expansion and remodeling project now under way, he said.