Selection Process for Site for New Regional Airport

As one of about 100 members of a volunteer citizens’ Airport Site Consensus Team, I was asked to rank, in order of importance, 21 factors (from a list compiled by consultants) that were deemed important in the selection of a place for an airport to serve Orange County.

In my opinion, the selection process was seriously flawed from the beginning. It did not recognize that the end product would be just another patchwork solution to the jumbled mess created by the ad hoc decisions of the past, let alone consider what the future would hold when other counties select their additional airports.

The approach should have been to look at three problems jointly with members of the Orange County Transportation Commission, the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the agencies of neighboring counties:

Airspace: The airspace over southern counties is highly saturated because of Los Angeles Airport traffic and because of the proximity to local or military sites, many of which were selected in the days before population growth. These sites do not optimize the available airspace, and LAX traffic interferes with many sites between Lake Arrowhead and the eastern city boundary of Los Angeles. A comprehensive plan to modify and allocate airspace is required. The results could be to free up airspace over existing sites being released by the military and make them ready candidates.

Transportation: Southern California traffic is in a near-gridlock condition. The Air Quality Management District has declared that even existing traffic is beyond acceptable limits. The probable solutions to this problem are rail systems. A properly located airport served by a high-speed rail system might also solve part of the existing commuter problem.

Environment/Quality of Life: Orange County contains some of the most attractive vacation and residential spots in the country. It is almost unbelievable that John Wayne Airport has been allowed to noise-pollute the environment of two of the most beautiful spots on the coast--Newport Beach and Balboa Island. Three of the sites selected by the present method as primary or secondary were El Potrero, a pristine parklike place; south Pendleton and Cristianitos--either of which would reduce the coastal cities of Oceanside or Dana Point, Capistrano Beach and San Clemente to smog-filled, noise-polluted, traffic-jammed commercial centers.

The selection method I propose would produce a more rational plan by specifically addressing these three problems, thus laying out the structure for future growth among interacting counties as well.

Maybe it is time to awaken our politicians to the realization that the people of Orange County do not want the quality of their daily lives sacrificed on the altar of poor planning.

HOWARD H. BELMONT

San Clemente