Opinions Still Fly on El Toro Reuse

As a resident of south Orange County, I read with fascination the relentless attacks on the proposed El Toro airport by my neighbors.

Where were these people when the advisory committees were being formed, the position papers were being drawn and policies were being implemented? They were boycotting the procedures, of course, and now that the vote has gone predictably against their wishes, they are threatening litigation, a boycott of various parts of Orange County and even a boycott of property taxes!

I find this response very disheartening. I am a proponent of the El Toro airport and have voted for same on two separate occasions and I will vote a third time if necessary. Inasmuch as the entirety of Orange County has voted on this issue and it is further clear that it is the will of the county that an El Toro airport go forward, these actions they are taking are meant only to do harm.

MICHELLE WITHROW

Aliso Viejo

* Supervisor Thomas W. Wilson has seriously compromised his professed commitment and missed a pristine opportunity to effectively suppress the construction of a commercial airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

His Jan. 7 “yes” vote on the approval of a loan extension for a county bond issue [provided] the 3-2 margin that will dramatically increase the county’s annual cash flow by tens of millions of dollars. This single action will effectively facilitate the county’s funding capacity relative to airport-related expenditures, including the county’s defense against three lawsuits filed by airport opponents.

The central question is: Why did Wilson refuse to vote against the loan extension as suggested by airport opponents?

By contrast, the merits of his earlier “no” vote on the environmental impact report was, by itself, an empty gesture since he was safely in the 4-1 minority. I ventured to guess that this vote against the report was calculated to placate the voters in the 5th District with an eye toward his election campaign. I am expecting more of the same between now and November 1998.

In order to win the war against the airport, Wilson must be an aggressive advocate and his actions must be pro-active and deliberately focused to effectively block the construction of any type of airport and he must simultaneously promote a nonairport option.

Regrettably, I question the purity of his motives on an issue that ultimately will destroy the quality of life for the people of South County.

PAUL WILLEMS

Laguna Niguel

* Re “Cypress Council Endorses El Toro Airport Plan,” Jan. 11:

I have no idea who is going around promoting the North County cities to endorse the conversion plan.

When I asked one of my council members why Villa Park endorsed the plan, he said the same thing Cypress did: “It’s good for business. We could ship our products in and out of our airport and not have to haul it from LAX.” When I mentioned that [much] more tonnage comes from the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors into Orange County than by air, his comment was, “I hadn’t thought of that.”

I haven’t heard anyone talking about dredging a ship channel to North Orange County or filling in Newport Harbor for container piers.

As a native of Los Angeles and having been raised in Inglewood, I consider myself an expert about LAX, which has devastated a once beautiful area. Lots are still vacant after 30 years where beautiful houses once stood overlooking the Pacific on the bluffs of Playa del Rey. The noise got them.

Along with the decent people employed at airports, the scam and con artists come with the package, as well as continual traffic, bars, hotels, car rental lots and the like. I have industrial property in Lake Forest and travel by air on an average as much as anyone in Orange County and will never have a problem flying out of LAX to keep the mess out of Orange County.

We need an international airport at El Toro like the council members endorsing it need a lifelong toothache.

A new international airport belongs in or around Camp Pendleton.

Council members [should] spend more time thinking instead of voting just to be voting.

TOM MALLOY

Villa Park

* By filing a lawsuit against the city of Irvine, the Orange County Board of Supervisors, with the exception of Supervisors Thomas W. Wilson and Todd Spitzer, have raised hypocrisy to an art form (“County Suit Claims Irvine Plans Impede Airport Project,” Jan. 15).

In attempting to block Irvine from zoning and building a proposed entertainment and sports complex on 440 acres that the city owns, the lawsuit contends the city’s environmental impact report is flawed. It alleges the city’s report fails to properly address traffic, noise and air quality.

If only county supervisors had been so concerned as to the quality of their own environmental impact report on the El Toro reuse plan. The audacity the supervisors exhibit in insisting that the rules of this game apply to all others except themselves may surprise some. However, the real surprise will be theirs, when they finally realize that South County citizens will stand together, and no longer accept lies and deception. Nor will we surrender our property rights.

RICHARD W. LUBLINE

Aliso Viejo

* It occurs to me that if only half of the legal, planning, and city committee members currently involved in the airport fracas ever need a flight out of Orange County, even a combined John Wayne and El Toro international airport will be insufficient.

NANCY J. MARCH

Villa Park