Airport Report Should Open Eyes

* Re: “Report Finds Little Need for Airport at El Toro,” (March 19).

Oh no, could this really be happening? A federally funded report by Leigh Fisher Associates concludes that there is little demand for an airport at El Toro through the year 2025. How shocking! This not only contradicts a 1993 study by the Southern California Assn. of Governments (SCAG) but is also the opposite position of some of the county’s most powerful political and business interests. How will this report be viewed? What is the next course of action?

Well, not to worry, action is being taken already! Supervisor William G. Steiner has instructed Jan Mittermeier, manager of John Wayne Airport, to request another review if it appears their assumptions are flawed (gee whiz, there must be flaws, it’s a conflicting report and we can’t have that!). County CEO William J. Popejoy agrees and says the report should be professionally completed before it is looked at (Leigh Fisher Associates are professionals, aren’t they?) and Mittermeier will supply a copy to the county supervisors if they request it (gee, suppose there is an interest in seeing the report?).

Oh, what turmoil! Will the database for reports be massaged enough so the results coincide with the SCAG report? Will these conflicting reports arouse other equally powerful political and business leaders to act with courage and conviction to pursue serious visionary options for the site? Will the public learn that in spite of Measure A, an airport does not have to be built? Will the hysteria (driven by greed) to build an airport subside and be replaced by judgment based on facts, common sense and reality? Does Orange County open wide and say “aahhh” while getting an unnecessary airport shoved down its throat? Let’s hope not. Stay tuned . . .

GLENDA N. MADDOX

Irvine

* Orange County has been approaching a new airport with all the subtlety of a runaway freight train with Casey Jones at the throttle. The latest study of Orange County airport needs still predicted that there is little demand for a new airport.

We have been told that there is a free lunch in Orange County and its name is the El Toro Airport. Deja vu Denver. Ten years ago Denver citizens were told that a new airport was needed. The airport is now a fact, the number of passengers flying out of Denver has not gone up since its conception, and someone must pay $2 billion in cost overruns. The Denver airport fiasco makes our present Orange County budget deficit look like a bookkeeping error.

The El Toro Airport should be reconsidered. Who gains from this airport? Are they the ones that pay for the airport, its pollution and congestion burdens, and its cost overruns? We will find out that more development is not always better and that taxpayers always pick up the tab for government mistakes.

PHILIP WESTIN

Irvine

* As reported in The Times, the Board of Supervisors has failed to release a feasibility study that concludes a commercial airport at El Toro is unnecessary.

After demonstrating a shocking failure to control the treasurer’s office, thereby driving the county into bankruptcy, one would have thought that the supervisors had learned a lesson.

The supervisors can no longer simply rubber-stamp every project proposed by the developers who support their election campaigns. Any new capital spending project must be subjected to the closest scrutiny. The Leigh Fisher report, at the very least, requires a complete re-evaluation of the economics of the proposed El Toro commercial airport.

That evaluation must consider the economic effect on Orange County of an under-utilized El Toro airport. What will be the result if the airport fees generated are insufficient to pay off the revenue bonds used to fund the development? Will Orange County taxpayers then be asked to approve still another tax increase to bail out the airport bondholders? Can the supervisors assure us this would not occur? Can we believe them?

LAWRENCE E. LANNON

Laguna Niguel