10th City Joins Challenge to El Toro Airport Report
The City Council voted unanimously this week to join nine other South County cities in a lawsuit that seeks to invalidate the environmental impact report on the proposed commercial airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.
San Clemente will join Tustin in intervening in the lawsuit, filed in January by Irvine, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Beach, Dana Point and San Juan Capistrano.
The suit said the county’s environmental report, which supervisors relied on to launch plans for the international airport, “minimized, distorted and misstated” the ecological impacts of the proposed airport at El Toro. It also said the report “systematically understated” the effects on noise, traffic, air pollution, safety and property values.
San Clemente council members on Wednesday stressed that they weren’t taking a position on the airport itself but were supporting the other cities in their request for a reexamination of the environmental study.
San Clemente will pay no legal fees to join the suit.
“This is really about getting all the facts on the table so an intelligent decision can be made,” City Councilman Steve Apodaca said.
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