SAN CLEMENTE : Airport Authority Session Canceled

A meeting set for Wednesday to discuss building an airport east of the city has been canceled.

Unable to establish ground rules for the meeting with city officials, the Orange County Cities Airport Authority decided to cancel the discussion about whether to develop a South County airport in Cristianitos Canyon, east of San Clemente.

“I had hoped to have an open discussion on the most critical issues without getting caught up in minutiae,” said Ken Delino, executive director of the airport authority. “We’re disappointed we couldn’t do that.”

The agency is an independent joint-powers group composed of six cities-- Anaheim, Garden Grove, Newport Beach, Santa Ana, Stanton and Yorba Linda.

The group supports building the airport in Cristianitos Canyon--a position that has been vehemently opposed by San Clemente residents, City Hall and the Board of Supervisors.

According to both Delino and city officials, the meeting was scuttled because of disagreement on several issues, including a mass mailing notifying residents of the discussion.

Delino, who is also deputy city manager of Newport Beach, said there are no plans to reschedule the meeting. Bill Mecham, a consultant for the city on airport issues, said he is sorry that the conference didn’t take place because “there are many people who would have come down and registered their dissent. I believe the intensity of that dissent had to have been a factor in (the airport authority’s) decision” to cancel the meeting.