Panel That Studied OCTA Buy of Airport Is Grounded

The Orange County Transportation Authority on Monday formally disbanded a committee formed last year to explore an idea once touted as a way for bankrupt Orange County to raise more than $300 million: selling John Wayne Airport to the independent transit agency.

In the aftermath of Orange County’s December 1994 bankruptcy filing, some county officials and a variety of pressure groups proposed selling the airport as one way of helping generate the funds necessary to dig out of the financial crisis.

OCTA created its Aviation Committee in mid-1995 to examine the feasibility of taking over the airport. The committee found several advantages to OCTA control, but county officials eventually cooled to the idea.

Last summer, the Board of Supervisors declined an offer by OCTA to jointly study the issue further, leaving the committee with little to do. The aviation panel hasn’t met since last July, according to an OCTA report.

John Wayne Airport is considered one of the county’s most valuable assets, but strict federal aviation rules make its sale to a private firm difficult. Even a sale to another public entity like the OCTA would require a lengthy regulatory review.

Under one proposal unveiled last summer, OCTA would have given the county $350 million in Measure M transportation tax funds in exchange for first development rights at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. The plan also called for OCTA to eventually take over John Wayne Airport.

The county eventually settled on a bankruptcy recovery plan that does not rely on revenue from an airport sale. The bankruptcy stemmed from a $1.64-billion loss to a county-run investment pool.