The Noise Over El Toro

Professor Arthur De Vany of UC Irvine, in the Feb. 2 Orange County Voices, spells out the latest in a string of schemes to make impacted Central and South County residents feel better about airplanes streaming overhead.

He proposes a “fee on each passenger or airliner takeoff and landing” to compensate nearby residents. De Vany writes, “A homeowner who sees and hears an aircraft moving overhead as a noise fee payment to his account . . . will have a more friendly attitude about the El Toro airport (or any future airport, for that matter).”

If this is a good idea, we should try it immediately at John Wayne. It could eliminate the need to build a new airport when we already own one. Let’s offer to remove the artificial capacity caps that limit the number of flights and institute the professor’s fee scheme. Hopefully the residents of Newport Beach will be delighted to hear night flights, knowing that each airplane flying over will be contributing to their piggy banks.

LEONARD KRANSER

Dana Point

* De Vany’s article did make some sense. That is why I am answering.

It is unfortunate that people talk only about noise issues because that is what our senses pick up easily.

There is something much worse than that, although we cannot easily sense it. It is the tremendous amount of pollution in every direction.

On Page 29 of the February issue of Scientific American there is a map showing “U.S. Deaths from Pneumonia.” In the text it states: “California has the highest rate, perhaps in part because of air pollution levels in Southern California.”

The November 1996 issue of Design News magazine shows what the next generation super jumbo airliner may look like; it would carry 800 passengers at supersonic speed. Can anyone imagine what that would do to all of us?

Besides that, compensating people in the “noise footprint” area would make the county and the country bankrupt. It is not just the home values dropping in some of the most prestigious, planned residential areas. It is not just the very expensive lawsuits. Probably not everybody knows that in order to live a quality life, in a nice, newer area, many people in the impacted area pay a large, extra Mello-Roos tax. This amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars every year. If quality of life gets eliminated, guess what would happen.

There are no two ways about it. Commercial airports, prisons and other public nuisances do not belong in residential areas! John Wayne Airport should not be there either. It is polluting us! Place airports far away, near the ocean or in the desert with high-tech commuting.

What is best for Orange County business? What do we need? High-tech industry, more colleges, a police academy, etc.

GEORGE MEZEI

Aliso Viejo

* What is the issue central to the El Toro airport dispute?

Simple. Is land planning for a segment of the county by countywide vote acceptable and prudent, or does it set a perilous precedent?

Land planning by countywide vote is being inflicted on several hundred thousand residents in the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station area with a countywide initiative sponsored by George Argyros and Marion Knott. Their Measure A mandates conversion of Marine Corps Air Station El Toro to a commercial airport. It narrowly passed in November 1994 when North County voters--who outnumber South County voters three-to-one--decided an international airport at El Toro would make all Orange County residents millionaires and cure cancer.

Suppose we put a countywide initiative on the ballot to develop a deep water cargo port at Newport Beach--a badly needed facility that would generate a million new jobs and a billion dollars in annual revenue, a facility we must have to become a “player in the booming Pacific Rim economy.”

Countywide, voters would approve this initiative 10 to 1, but we know a cargo port would never be built in Newport’s Harbor, don’t we?

The horrendous international airport imposed on South County residents is just as unacceptable as a cargo port would be to Newport Beach--even though an overwhelming majority of voters favor it. That’s the crux of the matter.

Land planning by countywide vote stinks and sets a perilous precedent.

DAVE BLODGETT

President

Leisure World Residents

to Save the Canyon

* I am amazed that you continue to have letters in your editorial pages from South County residents that reiterate the same arguments we heard before the county voted twice in support of El Toro airport and before the supervisors voted in favor of it.

Hello! The decision has been made: The majority want an airport. Now how about accepting it and moving on!!

KEVIN NEIL

Costa Mesa