Airport’s Cheap Parking Lots to Stay Open

Responding to a wave of complaints about the imminent shutdown of cheap long-term parking lots at the new John Wayne Airport, county officials reversed themselves Wednesday and said they will keep the lots open for at least 90 more days.

Higher rates at other airport parking facilities will still go into effect as planned on Sunday, when the $310-million airport expansion opens to the public.

The plans to close the long-term lots north of the airport have temporarily been shelved, said Courtney Wiercioch, public information officer for the airport. The price to park at those lots will increase from $6 a day to $7, but that is a bargain contrasted with the $14-a-day maximum for the new, close-in lots.

“We’ve heard a lot of concerns from board members and from the public,” Wiercioch said. “Now we’ll be able to look at a 90-day test. . . . We’ll evaluate the usage of the lots and do a cost-benefit analysis.”

The county will also continue to operate free shuttle service between the remote lots and the terminal during the 90-day period.

The abrupt reversal--which undoes part of an Aug. 22 Board of Supervisors’ vote--represents at least a temporary accommodation on an issue that had stirred intense public criticism over the past several days. Many travelers had complained about the decision to shut the lots, and county supervisors, who at first backed the plan unanimously, later joined their constituents in asking the airport staff to reconsider.

Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, one of those who raised questions about the plan, met with Airport Manager George Rebella Wednesday and said that he urged Rebella to develop an alternative.

“I’m glad to see that there’s a willingness to exercise some flexibility,” Vasquez said. “I think it’s important to get the facts in hand before you come to conclusions, and this 90-day period will let us do that.”

Rebella, who did not return phone calls Wednesday, will report to the board on an analysis of the demand for the lots at the end of the 90 days, officials said.

Even before that study begins, however, some officials indicated that they would be willing to consider leaving the remote lots open for longer than three months.

“I think this is an extremely good move,” said Robert Cashman, a member of the Orange County Airport Commission. “If the people really like it and we can afford to run it, I don’t have any problem with leaving it up indefinitely.”

On Aug. 22, the supervisors, backing a recommendation of the airport commission, unanimously approved a revised parking fee structure for John Wayne Airport. Under the portion of that proposal that remains in effect, the fees at the close-in lots are scheduled to increase Sunday from the current $12-a-day maximum to $14. After two days, the daily maximum fee will drop to $7. The hourly rate of $1 was not changed.

In addition, however, the proposal endorsed a consultant’s suggestion that the remote lots be closed during normal periods, to be used only if the close-in lots were full. Airport officials said that closing them would eliminate the expense of operating the shuttle buses--about $65,000 a month, according to Wiercioch.

Those changes, Rebella told the supervisors, were needed to ensure that the new parking facilities did not lose money. No one rose during the public hearing to oppose the suggestion, and the supervisors backed it without objection.

During the past several days, however, news reports called attention to the higher fees and supervisors were hit with a flurry of phone calls.

“I think you people put the pressure on those guys, and you got them gun-shy down there,” said Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, whose district includes the airport and whose name graces the new terminal. “We had talked about doing something like this, and I’m glad that now we’ll have a period for review.”