Supervisors Hit Turbulence Over El Toro Airport

More than 600 angry and vociferous South County residents packed Irvine City Hall on Wednesday night to fight a proposed airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station--and to accuse the Orange County Board of Supervisors of abandoning them.

“You are not our supervisors!” bellowed Bert Hack, one of the leading opponents of a commercial airport at El Toro. “You will divide this community and divide this county. . . . People who are not impacted are going to make a decision on people who are impacted.”

The meeting marked the first time the Orange County Board of Supervisors has ventured beyond the Hall of Administration in Santa Ana to discuss El Toro reuse plans. It also came a day after Supervisor Marian Bergeson, the board’s only outspoken opponent of the El Toro airport plan, announced she is leaving office in November to became state education secretary. Residents said they feared they were losing their most vocal ally.

“We are protesting taxation without representation,” Georgia Magidson of Mission Viejo said to cheers, as she accused the supervisors of failing as “shepherds leading the flock.”

Irvine resident Scott Couchman, objecting to an airport study that he said downplayed the potential noise from an airport, turned on a circular saw. He said the report compared airport noise to a circular saw going off about 50 times an hour, 24 hours a day.

“With your permission, I’d like to turn it on 50 times an hour for the duration of the meeting tonight,” Couchman said Wednesday. “Certainly you wouldn’t object to this intrusion, since you are willing to inflict it on residents.”

The contentious crowd repeatedly shouted down Board Chairman Roger R. Stanton as he tried to limit speakers to three minutes each. At one point during the jeering, one man stood up and screamed: “Why don’t you shut up?”

Stanton told another speaker who went past his time limit that he was out of order. The crowd erupted into boos and jeers as the chairman threatened to adjourn the meeting. Stanton did not follow through on his threat.

The battle has divided residents along geographical lines. On one side are business interests and residents, mainly those in North County, who support developing a civilian airport when the military abandons the 4,700-acre base by 1999. On the other side are mostly South County homeowners and residents who live close to the base and under proposed flight paths.

Supporters say a commercial airport at El Toro could compete with Los Angeles International Airport for international passengers and cargo shipments, bringing high-paying jobs and providing a welcome jolt to the economy.

Opponents say that benefit would come at their expense. The noise, traffic and pollution from a commercial airport would make their lives miserable and deflate their home values, and there are plenty of other ways to use the base for jobs and economic growth, they said.

Norma Ludwig of Aliso Viejo was near tears when she told the board she fears pollution from an airport. She said her son has cystic fibrosis and worried that pollution would “hasten his death.”

“Please bring sanity back to the planning process,” she said.

Several speakers demanded that the board delay the El Toro decision-making process or abandon the airport idea until studies can be performed that take their concerns into consideration.

The opponents have been fighting a losing battle. Voters countywide have twice endorsed the airport plan. A legal challenge failed. A draft environmental impact report portrays an airport as the best base-reuse plan.

And the majority on the Board of Supervisors is considered likely to back an airport when the decision comes before them in early December, giving opponents just two months to try to turn the tide.

“It’s good for them to hear this,” said Bergeson, who hopes to be succeeded by a South County resident who opposes an airport.

The supervisors can choose from three reuse options, or craft a hybrid of their own choosing.

The option that has gained the most attention would develop El Toro into an international airport serving more than 38 million passengers a year and handling an estimated 1.64 million tons of cargo a year for local business. With this option, passenger and cargo service would cease at John Wayne Airport, which would remain open just for general aviation needs, primarily small aircraft.

Other options include developing a cargo and general aviation facility at El Toro or turning the base over for other purposes, such as business, residential, educational and recreational uses. These scenarios would expand John Wayne Airport to serve about 15 million passengers annually.

A controversial draft environmental impact report says each of the three options would generate nearly $10 billion annually for the local economy when fully operational. That would be roughly by 2020 for a passenger-cargo airport, and possibly as long as 2045 for the other two options, according to the report.

Airport supporters are quick to stress that an airport would bring the quickest economic benefit, while opponents say a base-reuse plan that does not include an airport could also generate similar growth.

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More Meetings

Here’s a schedule of upcoming public meetings on El Toro’s future. All will be take place at the County Hall of Administration. Dates are subject to change:

Oct. 16: Joint meeting of El Toro Citizens Advisory Commission, county Planning Commission and county Airport Commission; time to be announced

Oct. 24: Citizens Advisory Commission meets, tentatively scheduled for 4 p.m.; time may change to allow more people to attend

Nov. 20: Citizens Advisory Commission meets, 1:30 p.m., and county Airport Commission meets, 7 p.m.; both will make base reuse recommendations

Nov. 21: Planning Commission meets at 1:30 p.m. to issue recommendation

December: Supervisors meet to consider recommendations and make their final choice on reuse; no date or time set