Tempers Flare Over El Toro

* I have read with great interest your Feb. 13 article regarding Project 99’s interpretation of the 1994 federal study as it pertains to land value surrounding select U.S. airports.

It is apparent that the disseminators of misinformation are at it again. The FAA study which they are relying upon undermines their very foundation. The study stressed the results cannot be used to make general conclusions, such as the one reached by Project 99, based upon the wide variation on only a limited number of neighborhoods around a small sampled airport.

The fact there is not an airport within the United States that has a 16,000-acre no-home zone already in existence, such as El Toro, supports the FAA’s caveat.

The intent of Project 99’s doomsayers is quite clear. They are attempting to intimidate North County with scare tactics which are unfounded and unsupported. Having Greg Gilroy, a commercial real estate broker in Irvine and a member of Project 99, act as the bellwether of home value prices is rather like having the proverbial fox guard the henhouse.

On the other hand, most independent sources are supporting the county’s position as to the profitability of land around El Toro. One only has to look at the proliferation of international businesses, be they recreational, law, accounting or telemarketing, which have sprung up around John Wayne Airport in the last 15 years. Not quite the urban blight portrayed by Project 99.

Project 99’s supporters should climb down out of their ivory tower in South County and visit some of the North County communities which they are attempting to scare with their tactics.

Jets have been flying over the North County communities of Anaheim, Yorba Linda, Placentia and Fullerton for many years. They and other cities within the greater Orange County area are merely now asking that South County step forward and share the burden to the betterment of the entire county as we move into the 21st century.

RICHARD E. TAYLOR JR.

Newport Beach

* I have followed with great interest the sports stadium proposal by South County anti-airport groups.

It appears that they are grasping at straws when you consider that Anaheim is already developing a sports complex, expanding its convention center and expanding Disneyland. How many sports teams can this county support?

The difference between the Anaheim and the Irvine plans is that Anaheim actually owns and controls the land for its project. Irvine does not. The Department of Defense owns El Toro.

The straw at which South County politicians are grasping could become very expensive when some slick operator like Al Davis swoops down and fleeces them for millions.

Beware South County taxpayers, you are playing in a league that can become very expensive. You don’t own the land, you don’t have a team, and your motivation is all wrong.

BONNIE BEAL

Huntington Beach

* Airport supporters constantly pan every alternative to an airport by saying that the votes have been cast and an airport is the preferred option at El Toro.

Maybe if the voters had been given complete information instead of hundreds of pages on why an airport would be great and a paragraph on a park or some kind of sports center or some kind of light industry the vote might have been different.

The options to an airport were so vague that no intelligent voter not directly affected by an airport could make an educated choice.

I hope all sides of this issue can keep their minds open. When you are directly affected you will always look at the alternative that is skewed in your favor.

Unfortunately those of us affected, on both sides, are dependent on the rest of the county to look at the facts and think rationally about how everyone’s taxes should be spent.

TERRIE McKINLEY

Aliso Viejo

* So now the El Toro Airport opponents propose building a sports complex on the base. Irvine Councilman Dave Christensen says his goal is to put this proposal “before the voters.” We’ve already voted--twice! And we, the voters, want an airport.

Orange County needs an airport with international flights and competitive air fares. Right now every flight out of John Wayne costs more than a comparable flight out of LAX.

An El Toro airport would allow Orange County residents access to more destinations without going though the hassle of driving to and parking at LAX.

As for noise, the loudest commercial airliner is quieter than any military aircraft flying out of El Toro. If the Irvine City Council is so concerned about noise, why haven’t they done something about the Marine helicopters which have rattled our walls and windows each and every day for over 10 years? No commercial plane flying out of El Toro will ever create vibrations like that in Irvine.

RAY UHLER

Irvine

* Our community has endured living under the takeoff route from John Wayne Airport ever since it opened as a commercial airport in 1952.

This has been without the advantage of a 16,000-acre noise buffer that exists at the present military airport at El Toro. During this time the people in South County have taken advantage of the convenience of John Wayne, even though it was limited in scope and not able to handle international flights.

It is time that some other areas of the county, if they wish to participate in the growing world business market and have facilities that provide our residents the convenience of outgoing and incoming world travel, take on some responsibility for providing some of the future air transportation requirements of Orange County as we move into the 21st century.

Orange County should not be subordinated to Los Angeles business interests and cannot be forever beholden to LAX, which is reaching its limits with its growing congestion and attendant crowded freeways.

Those no-growth interests that indicate the small John Wayne Airport with all of its physical limitations and constraints could serve the future air transportation needs of Orange County lack foresight and have no vision as far as the future of Orange County and its residents.

If this shortsightedness persists, it will result in the crippling and handicapping of Orange County’s future economy and the inconvenience of our residents when it comes to world air travel.

E.P. BENSON

President

Dover Shores Community Assn.

Newport Beach

* After following the reports on the conversion of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to an international airport and all the arguments that go along with it, I think I have the perfect solution to the ongoing turmoil between north Orange County and south Orange County.

It appears that the residents of north Orange County seem to be the ones that favor an international airport at El Toro more than the South County residents. So the solution seems rather simple. Petition the Pentagon to transfer the reserves now at Los Alamitos Armed Forces Reserve Center to El Toro and keep El Toro open as a reserve base and build the international airport at Los Alamitos. That way South County can keep the occasional jets and helicopters that we are used to and accept, and North County can have their big airport. In fact they can have it right in their own front yard.

This seems to make much more sense all around. Los Alamitos is close to three freeways (the 405, the 605 and the 22). Takeoffs would be out over the ocean. And there is plenty of land around the base open for development for a terminal.

If everyone thinks we need an international airport in Orange County (I do not), then let’s build it where the majority of the people who want it can use it the easiest.

JAY STALLMAN

Trabuco Canyon