Public Usage of Airport Facilities

Re “O.C. Could Lose John Wayne Facilities if Not Used for Airport,” June 21.

A headline like that should enrage everyone that has been following the El Toro airport debate.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors, those same people that brought Orange County that “pesky” bankruptcy, are fighting hard to convert the Marine Corps Air Station to a commercial airport, which is just a scant seven miles from John Wayne Airport.

It truly is amazing that in this highly conservative county, taxpayers would tolerate the loss of a public facility after pumping in more than $310 million to upgrade John Wayne in 1987. The very same bureaucrats that participated in the embarrassing bankruptcy now concur that if John Wayne Airport is shut down or its public use changed, the land could legally revert back to the original owner (the Irvine Co.).

While the grand jury report raises a concern that if the property ceases to be used for an airport, the county could lose key facilities that now enable it to repay the hefty bond debt, a John Wayne spokesperson has downplayed this major concern by suggesting that the new facilities at El Toro would pay down the bonds for John Wayne. If the new airport is used to pay down the bonds of the old airport, the taxpayers will actually be toting the cost for two airports since both bonds must be paid off.

It has always been a question as to why the Irvine Co. never spoke out against the proposed airport. We now all know it is because of the reversionary clauses written into the original grant deed to the County of Orange granting the ownership of the land back to the Irvine Co. if the facility is not used for its original purpose. No wonder the outrage and influence of the Irvine Co. has been lacking.

FRED SCHWARTZ

Irvine