O.C. Airport to Add 2,000 Parking Spaces Over 2 Years

Moving to ease a notorious parking shortage at John Wayne Airport, officials on Friday said they plan to add nearly 2,000 parking spaces over the next two years. The $27-million plan calls for two levels of parking to be built above existing lots in front of the main Thomas F. Riley Terminal.

Construction, scheduled to begin this fall, will temporarily leave the airport with even fewer available spaces and is expected to inconvenience travelers for at least seven months.

During construction, passengers will be directed to the long-term parking lots half a mile from the main terminal. The airport also plans to add more shuttles between the outlying lots and the terminal.

“We have enough parking space to accommodate this,” said airport spokeswoman Kathleen Campini Chambers. “We find that people prefer the convenience of parking close to the terminal. So we are going to have an extensive public awareness campaign that offers them alternatives.”

Adding the extra levels of parking has been discussed for years. It was considered in 1990 during construction of the Riley terminal, but officials decided there wasn’t enough demand for the spaces.

Since 1990, the number of passengers who pass through John Wayne Airport annually has jumped from 4.5 million to more than 7 million.

“We continue to experience steady passenger growth, and that, of course, places increased demand on parking availability,” Chambers said. “The time to do this is now.”

The Board of Supervisors approved design work for the additions just two days before the county declared bankruptcy on Dec. 6, 1994. The bankruptcy caused delays, but officials now say they have money in the airport budget to build the additional parking levels.

The existing 4,500 spaces next to the main terminal frequently fill up on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays as business travelers leave their cars for weekday trips. The lots also fill up during holiday weekends, forcing travelers to park in the outlying lots, which have 2,000 additional spaces.

“I’m happy to hear they are doing something about it,” said Marsha Goldman, an Irvine accountant who travels through John Wayne Airport several times a month. “I drive around and around those lots and never find a place.”

Goldman, however, anticipates confusion and disruption during construction.

Airport officials said the worst problems will occur in the first seven months of construction, when hundreds of spaces will be taken away. After that first phase, more spaces will be available and disruptions should dissipate, Chambers said.

The airport will formally announce the expansion and provide design drawings and other information later this month. The Board of Supervisors will vote on preliminary construction plans in the next few weeks.

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Parking Stories

Construction is scheduled to begin this fall on two lots opposite the Thomas F. Riley terminal. The project will add about 2,000 parking spaces to John Wayne Airport.