FAA Finds No Bar to Civilian El Toro Airport

The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday there is no reason the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station can’t be used for a civilian airport, but critics immediately lambasted the agency for ignoring safety concerns.

In a key preliminary finding, the FAA, which plays a crucial role in deciding what happens to the surplus military base, concluded that “there are no airspace or operational constraints that would prohibit a civil aviation reuse” of El Toro.

“Based on available data, a civil aviation reuse is feasible,” said Herman C. Bliss, manager of the FAA’s Western-Pacific Regional Airports Division.

The finding is a critical step in clearing the way for development of an airport at El Toro. However, the project must still gain the approval of the Orange County Board of Supervisors and the Navy, and must undergo continuing FAA scrutiny.

Bliss’ brief letter to Orange County planners was hailed by airport supporters.

“It can be done--an airport at El Toro will work,” said former Newport Beach Mayor Clarence J. Turner, president of the Airport Working Group, which supports an El Toro airport as a way to limit air traffic at John Wayne Airport.

Kathleen Campini Chambers, spokeswoman for the county’s base reuse planning process, added, “The letter substantiates what we found in our analysis with regard to feasibility.”

But airport opponents said the FAA essentially rubber-stamped the highly controversial proposal to build an airport serving 38.3 million passengers a year after the military abandons El Toro by 1999.

“The airport people have as their mission building airports and their attitude is ‘make it work,’ so I can’t say this surprises me,” said Bill Kogerman, co-chairman of Taxpayers for Responsible Planning, the South County-based group leading the fight against an El Toro airport.

A majority of countywide voters have twice endorsed an El Toro airport, but many residents who live near the base or under proposed flight paths oppose it because of concerns about noise, traffic and safety.

The controversy now centers on a 10-volume base reuse plan and draft environmental impact report proposed by Orange County Environmental Management Agency and John Wayne Airport staff members and hired aviation consultants.

The environmental document examined three base reuse proposals. One would turn El Toro into an international airport, making it one of the largest airports in the nation. Under this scenario, John Wayne Airport would become a general aviation airport.

The second option for El Toro includes a general aviation-cargo airport, which would require expanding John Wayne Airport for passenger service. The third alternative would be nonaviation uses, such as businesses, homes, tourist attractions, recreational facilities and a campus.

Critics said the FAA’s letter is the latest example of a backward planning process designed to ensure the building of an airport at El Toro.

The county and the FAA are delaying more detailed studies about flight paths and other critical issues until after county supervisors decide in December whether they approve the airport in concept.

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Next Wednesday, the Orange County Airport Commission and the El Toro Citizens Advisory Commission will meet to make recommendations about the base’s reuse. The Orange County Planning Commission convenes next Thursday to consider whether the environmental impact report is adequate.

But airport opponents say they can’t understand how the boards can decide the most important land use issue of the future without more information. For example:

* The FAA’s own air traffic officials are worried about whether two airports so close together pose significant air traffic problems and have questioned whether existing runways at El Toro can be used for commercial aircraft.

* The Air Line Pilots Assn. favors an El Toro airport but has threatened to boycott proposed takeoff patterns to the east as unsafe. Takeoffs in other directions, however, would create more noise over Irvine and other residential areas.

“They need that kind of detailed analysis now, to decide what is really feasible, rather than feed this kind of slop to the community,” said Irvine activist and airport opponent Bill Mavity. “This is turning into a political war, not a factual war.”

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Few doubt that an airport could operate at El Toro; the question is the facility’s safety and impact on surrounding neighborhoods.

“With the data they have, I’m sure they’re right, an airport will ‘work’ ” said Capt. Jon Russell, Western Pacific regional safety chairman for the Air Line Pilots Assn., the union for more than 44,000 pilots nationwide. “We’re interested in how they plan to make it work. We’re saying there are safer ways of doing things.”

Supervisors William G. Steiner and Don Saltarelli said the FAA letter settles some issues but doesn’t resolve the most important issue of all, whether a major airport belongs at El Toro.

“This gives us somewhat of a comfort level that there are no obvious fatal flaws in the aviation scenario, but there are still many questions that need to be answered before I’ll feel comfortable supporting this use,” Steiner said.

“I don’t think the issue is so much technical in nature,” Saltarelli added. “It’s the quality of life issue.”

In other developments Wednesday, the county released its responses to the public’s questions about the draft environmental impact report.

Contained in 25 volumes, the responses span several thousand pages and deal with everything from runway safety to whether birds from a nearby reserve will be endangered by El Toro aircraft.

In many instances, the county refers people to the section of the environmental report where their answer can be found. In other cases, the county says the answer to certain questions won’t be available until the planning process moves forward.