Airport Monorail Gains, Needs OKs

A novel proposal to link a new John Wayne Airport terminal to a nearby office complex with a privately funded monorail is closer to reality but still faces substantial hurdles, officials said Wednesday.

McDonnell Douglas Realty Co. wants to build the first privately owned, public-use monorail system in the country to link its Douglas Plaza business park to the planned $300-million terminal, half a mile away. The company says it has the $3 million it needs to go ahead, but airport officials say they have yet to see the plan in writing.

“They now have the commitment on the money, but they’re at the point where they have to put up or lose their opportunity to do the project,” said George Rebella, airport manager. “All they have right now is a concept that they would like to implement. They’re running out of time.”

Officials of the company, the commercial development arm of aerospace giant McDonnell Douglas Corp., met Wednesday with airport officials to try to firm up final details of the proposal, but little was accomplished, according to Rebella. The groups will meet again today,he said.

The project faces a tight deadline, however.

Construction on the new terminal is scheduled to begin early next year, Rebella said. By the time that structure goes up, McDonnell’s written proposal must be approved by the county Airport Commission, the County Board of Supervisors and the city of Irvine. The monorail would run through the jurisdictions of each governmental body.

The company had hoped to place its proposal before the Airport Commission on Oct. 6, “but it’s not going (to be submitted) because we have nothing to file with the commission,” Rebella said. “We haven’t seen anything in writing offering a concrete proposal.”

The earliest time the proposal could now be heard and voted on is at the commission’s next scheduled meeting on Oct. 19, Rebella said. If the commission approves the plan, it would probably go to the supervisors early in November and after that to the Irvine City Council.

Little has changed with the plan since McDonnell publicly proposed its ambitious monorail system last June except, Rebella said, that the company reports that it now has its financing lined up. County transportation officials lauded the proposal when it was first announced.

In a prepared statement released this week, Robert Young, president of McDonnell Douglas Realty, said the monorail “fulfills a wish by county and city government leaders that private businesses help find creative solutions to Orange County’s serious traffic problems.”

The company has agreed to link its system to any other future ones leading into the airport area.

“Its possibilities for expansion are limitless,” Young said. “Other nearby hotels and business districts could easily hook into the system. It could be extended to . . . (the) Irvine Spectrum,” a massive office complex to be built about 12 miles south of the airport where the Santa Ana and San Diego freeways merge.

The monorail, it is felt, also might attract more tenants into office buildings near its destination. Office vacancy rates in the John Wayne Airport area have hovered around 24% for more than a year, a figure similar to the county average. Orange County is described by industry experts as glutted with office space.

McDonnell’s proposed railway would run on a single steel track about 20 feet above the ground over MacArthur Boulevard, linking Douglas Plaza’s nine office buildings to the airport’s eastern parking garage.

Airport officials later this year will ask for two bids when proposals go out on the garage construction, one without the monorail and one with it, according to Sharon Esterley, spokeswoman for the Airport Improvement Project.

“I think this monorail is very exciting,” she said. “It offers the first link of what could be a countywide system.”

The estimated $300,000 cost to design, build and hook up the railway to the terminal would be borne by McDonnell, Rebella said.

The three-car monorail would resemble the futuristic transit system at Walt Disney World in Florida. In fact, the same company that designed and built the Disney rail system--The Transportation Group Inc. based in Denver--would construct McDonnell’s system.

Up to 1,500 people a day would ride the monorail, according to the firm’s own studies, McDonnell says.

But until McDonnell’s plans can be studied in detail, Rebella said that he has one major concern about the proposal.

“We are enthused about the project,” he said. “But we have to be sure it doesn’t affect our ability to pay off our (new terminal construction) bonds.”

The line would shuttle office workers along MacArthur Boulevard, from Douglas Street to the new terminal building. Rebella said he had some concern that airport passengers and employees might be siphoned off by the monorail to do business in the “extensive restaurant facilities and gift shops” that exist at Douglas Plaza. Such a trend might have the effect of hurting business at the airport, he pointed out, and “our bond rating is based on expected revenues from airport facilities.”

On the other hand, he said, airport officials believe that the monorail would draw more office workers to the airport’s shops than would go in the other direction.