Taking the Air Out of the Airport

* I have a proposal for the cities in South Orange County that oppose the construction of a large international airport at El Toro.

Why doesn’t each city simply enact an ordinance prohibiting the violation of its air space by any type of commercial jet below the altitude of, say, 20,000 feet?

The penalty for violating each city’s air space could be set at a figure high enough to ensure that it will be obeyed, say $1 million per violation. Air space is already a recognized property right in both national and international law, so why not in local law?

Mineral rights covering whatever may lie beneath the surface of one’s property are an established and well recognized legal right, so why not, correspondingly, the air space representing a valuable asset above the surface of one’s property?

BARBARA PHILLIPS

Dana Point

* The promoters of a commercial airport at El Toro, particularly King George Argyros and his disciples, obviously have their own vested interests in mind, least of which is the fact that there are some 16,000 acres of “no-home” zone land which surrounds the military base.

This buffer zone is often cited by Argyros and his disciples (including former Orange County Supervisor Bruce Nestande, who resigned from office to become the first disciple to King George), as a major reason for using El Toro as a commercial airport. The implication is that this 16,000-acre buffer zone will remain.

Baloney. Developers tried in the mid-1970s to break into this buffer zone, arguing that the noise levels weren’t valid. It was only through one of the hardest fought behind-the-scenes battles in that decade that the developers’ efforts to build in the restricted noise zone were thwarted.

With quieter aircraft in the offing, I’ll be very surprised if the developers do not mount an all-out effort once again to reduce the buffer zone and free up more land for development.

The public deserves to know the truth about the sanctity of the buffer zone. It is being promoted as a “positive reason” for developing El Toro into a commercial airport. If that is the case, the Board of Supervisors and Argyros and his disciples should be willing to publicly guarantee preservation of this 16,000-acre buffer zone.

SHIRLEY GRINDLE

Orange

* Larry Agran is absolutely right that the conversion of the El Toro Marine base into a civilian airport will ruin the values of the properties under the flight path of the new airport.

In fact, even the possibility of the conversion began to have a negative effect as soon as the closure was announced. My home has declined in value from $400,000 to $270,000 and Realtor friends tell me every offer they receive for properties in our area comes with news stories or other information calling attention to the noise and pollution that will descend upon the area, as if to justify the low-ball offers being made.

The contention that proximity to an airport actually enhances the value of real estate is either wrong or taken out of context or concerns property zoned for commercial or industrial use.

The suggestion that this is shown by the fact that property values in Newport Beach have not noticeably declined ignored the fact that the area has intangible scenic values that overwhelm the negativity of the overflights.

As an illustration of the effect that noise and pollution can have on a community, one need only remember that after jet aircraft began to be allowed at LAX, homeowners on Pershing Drive west of the airport sued the Los Angeles Department of Airports and won a judgment worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

HAL ROBERTS

Portola Hills