Latest Airport Study Disputes Others : Aviation: El Toro facility would cost $1 billion with no way to pay for it, analysis done for Laguna Niguel asserts.

LAGUNA NIGUEL — Building a commercial airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station would cost about $1 billion, but there is no apparent way to pay for it and its construction would impose a financial burden on county taxpayers, according to a study released Tuesday.

The 79-page report, done for the city of Laguna Niguel on behalf of the South County Cities Working Group, attacked previous studies of a civilian airport at El Toro for offering “an exaggerated picture of gross economic benefits.”

However, the Laguna Niguel report, prepared by five consulting firms headed by Kotin, Regan & Mouchly Inc., reached questionable conclusions of its own. The authors acknowledged that they did not do an independent study but merely analyzed previous airport studies of El Toro. Their conclusions were often opposite of the original findings.

The Laguna Niguel study put the cost of a civilian airport at El Toro at $1 billion and said it would be “a major financial burden on county taxpayers.” There is “no clearly identifiable source to fund it,” the report said.

The authors estimated that the federal government would pay $200 million of the construction cost and that $800 million “in local bond proceeds may be necessary to fund development” of an airport. The result would be an annual service debt of $60 million over the life of the bonds. The report concluded that an airport could not be built “without a major taxpayer subsidy.”

In addition, the report said that building a commercial airport at El Toro would put Orange County at risk in defaulting on $240 million in bonds sold to finance the construction of John Wayne Airport, because the new airport would compete directly with John Wayne and take away revenue.

However, Courtney Wiercioch, manager of government relations at John Wayne, said the bonds sold to finance the airport were sold on the retail bond market and are not backed by the county.

“The risk is held by those who purchased the bonds, which are backed by airport revenues,” Wiercioch said. “If the revenue is not sufficient to back the bonds, there is no recourse that allows the bondholders to dip into county revenue funds.”

The report cited what the authors said were numerous factual errors contained in the previous studies. For example, previous studies ignored the fact that El Toro would be competing with other regional airports such as Ontario, Long Beach and John Wayne for short- and medium-haul traffic, the report said.

“These airports are well established and have substantial additional capacity and expansion potential. . . . Major airlines are extremely reluctant to gamble on a new airport facility and prefer to remain at well-established and well-recognized airports,” the report said.

Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, which closed and is now operating as San Bernardino International Airport, has attracted no commercial air carriers, despite projected immediate demand of 820,000 annual passengers, the report noted.