Governing Panel OKd for Proposed Airport : Point Mugu: Supervisors vote to join a joint powers agency that could operate the Navy airfield for military and civilian use.

A plan to set up commercial airline service from the Point Mugu Navy base picked up steam Tuesday as the county Board of Supervisors approved establishment of a governing authority that would run the proposed airport.

After a two-hour hearing, the supervisors voted 4 to 1 to join a joint powers authority that could one day operate the Navy airfield for both military and civilian use.

Supervisor Maggie Kildee cast the lone dissenting vote. But the majority of the board, led by Supervisor John K. Flynn, agreed the time was ripe to establish the new agency, to be made up of representatives from the county and the cities of Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Thousand Oaks and Ventura.

“Remember--this is only the beginning,” Flynn said. “The EIR (environmental impact report) must still be done and all kinds of permits must be obtained before we will be ready to petition the Navy on this thing.”

The Oxnard Harbor District and the city of Camarillo have yet to decide whether to join the joint powers authority. After initially leaning toward creation of the governing authority, Kildee recently changed her mind.

“The impact this airport will have on Camarillo has the possibility of being far greater than anywhere else in the county,” said Kildee, whose district includes the city. “Because of that I think we need a lot more studies to be done before we proceed with a JPA.”

Early reports by consultants projected that as many as 2.4 million passengers could use the facility by 2010. Subsequent studies have shown sharply reduced passenger estimates and have questioned whether any major airlines would move to the new airport.

Flynn, one of the more vocal proponents of the airport, was joined in his support by new board colleague Judy Mikels and Kenneth M. High Jr., a representative of the Ventura County Taxpayers Assn.

“This may be the only opportunity we will have to site a commercial airport in this county,” Mikels said. “Maybe this will never happen. But I am willing to support it this far.”

High said an airport would stimulate the county’s economy and make life easier for local travelers who now have to commute to Los Angeles International or Burbank airports.

“This is a singular opportunity for the county. I ask you to be visionary,” High told the board. “You have to have some faith that the county will need an airport like this.”

But Camarillo resident Don Hollingsworth pleaded with the board to delay action on joining, and thereby, activating the authority.

“I think it is entirely premature for the board to approve this joint powers authority agreement,” Hollingsworth said. “None of the reports we have seen are complete and the drafts I have read are riddled with flaws. All this will do is add another layer of bureaucrats to our government.”

*

Echoing Hollingsworth was William Dunkle, a Camarillo-area resident and retired United Airlines executive.

“What you people don’t realize is that people will have to pay five times as much to fly out of Point Mugu than they would at Burbank Airport,” Dunkle said. “In operational terms, this would be at best a marginal operation.”

Camarillo residents have long opposed the joint use plan at Point Mugu, citing concerns over noise, safety and air pollution. The City Council last year went on record opposing the plan. A section of the city’s east side is situated under an existing flight path to the Navy base.

Before approving terms of the governing authority, the supervisors insisted that a clause be inserted into the bylaws giving the board final say on whether to petition the Navy to create a joint-use airport.

*

After the governing authority’s work is complete, the group will have to seek permission from the Navy, the Department of Defense and possibly other federal agencies to convert the 11,000-foot airfield to partial civilian use.

The board’s action Tuesday comes less than a week after the second phase of a feasibility study was released to the Point Mugu Airfield Investigative Committee.

The committee, representing county and city leaders, has been studying the joint-use concept since March, 1993, when the Navy reversed a decades-long stance and approached civilian officials with the proposal. Navy officials said they were prompted to make the offer in the face of a steadily declining number of military flights at the base.

The 55-page report, authored by aviation analysts with the Southern California Assn. of Governments, stated there were no “fatal flaws” in the airport plan and that the facility would cause little environmental damage and could generate thousands of jobs.

But while the SCAG report presented a positive outlook, the contents of an internal report whose contents were made public late last week showed little or no interest by airlines in moving to the seaside facility.

*

The internal study showed that early predictions estimating that as many as 2 million passengers would use the facility by 2010 were too high and that, initially, just one turbo-prop commuter airline probably would be lured into establishing service out of Point Mugu.

Tim Merwin, SCAG’s chief aviation analyst, said that after studying the internal report he has come to agree with its findings. Merwin also conceded that a more realistic projection for the site would be about 500,000 passengers by 2010.

By joining the JPA, the county, like the other cities who are members in the agreement, agreed to lend the entity $20,000 for start-up costs. Officials said they hoped to hold the new organization’s first meeting in early March.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

FYI

The public is invited to attend the final meeting of the Point Mugu Airfield Investigative Committee Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. at the offices of the Ventura County Department of Airports, 555 Airport Way, Camarillo.