Packard Opposes Two County Sites Studied for Airport

A congressman who sits on a powerful House aviation panel said Friday that he strongly opposes two Orange County sites recommended for a new regional airport. A third primary site is in San Bernardino County.

Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) said potential airport sites in Cleveland National Forest east of San Juan Capistrano and at Camp Pendleton, both in Packard’s 43rd Congressional District, “are unacceptable to me, and I will fight them.”

He voiced equally strong objections to two secondary sites in Cristianitos Canyon near San Clemente and Palomar Airport in San Diego County--also in his district.

“We simply are not anxious at all to have an airport sited in either the populated area, or the future populated area of Orange County,” Packard said in an interview.

He said the only primary site listed that seems acceptable is soon-to-be-closed Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino County.

Packard sits on the aviation subcommittee of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee, which oversees the Federal Aviation Administration and which would have to approve federal money used in construction of a new airport.

“I hope (the site selection committee) will read some writing on the wall there,” Packard said.

The potential sites were recommended earlier this month by the staff of the Airport Site Coalition, a private group sanctioned by the Orange County Board of Supervisors and aided by professional planning consultants.

The coalition is assisting preparations for a new air passenger airport that would relieve the severe overcrowding at John Wayne Airport, nestled between Costa Mesa and Irvine, and northeast of Newport Beach.

Packard said he has had preliminary talks with Rep. George E. Brown Jr. (D-Colton), whose district includes Norton Air Force Base, about the idea of putting a new airport there.

“What we’re doing is inquiring about what the constituents feel about whether a commercial airport could replace some of that economic and job loss” caused by the Air Force’s decision to close the base, Packard said.

Building a new airport at the proposed site in the Cleveland National Forest, at Potrero Los Pinos, “would have a very serious impact on the environment,” Packard said.

The Camp Pendleton location “is totally out of the question,” he added, because “it would literally destroy Camp Pendleton as a training base. We simply cannot permit that.”