ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Don’t Shoot at the Marines

Irvine officials have been so concerned about Marine Corps helicopter flights over their city that last month they asked the Defense Department to stop all flights out of the Tustin air base. So it is hard to believe that the city would seriously consider making the situation worse by allowing nearly 4,000 new homes to be built under the helicopter flight path--in the Irvine Co.’s proposed Westpark II residential village--without requiring adequate sound protection for all the residents.

That is what would happen if the city makes the mistake of not following the reasonable recommendation of its own planning staff, and of the Marines, to require soundproofing of all the homes. The Irvine Co. has asked to exempt a substantial number from the requirement, and the Planning Commission now has the development before it.

The city, out of concern for its residents and the Marines’ vital military mission, should turn a deaf ear to the developer’s demands.

The area, on the doorstep of the air base, probably is not the best place in Orange County for a new housing project. But nobody, including the Marines, is saying that housing shouldn’t be built. The reality is that residents will see and hear the helicopters regularly; and the Marines’ firm policy is not to compromise flight safety for noise-abatement measures. Therefore, it is in everyone’s best interest to minimize helicopter noise.

Although prospective homeowners now must be advised of the closeness of the air station and their homes’ location beneath flight patterns, history shows that such homes are bought, and later residents raise complaints about the noise, demanding that flights be rerouted or halted altogether.

The Marine Corps is understandably concerned that this will happen again, resulting in increased pressure on the air station’s operations, which require intensive training to maintain combat readiness. The crises in Liberia and Kuwait offer ample evidence of the need to preserve the Marines’ military mission. Adequate sound attenuation for all the new homes could help make life considerably more comfortable for everybody concerned.

In the unlikely event that the Irvine Co. could demonstrate that any part of the area would not be subject to helicopter noise, the city might have grounds to exempt some homes, giving buyers the choice of purchasing noise-reduction as an option.

Otherwise, all homes should be built with it. Anything less would not be a sound policy.