Polarization Over El Toro

I congratulate The Times for another timely and intelligent editorial concerning El Toro (Jan. 18).

Not to take anything away from the efforts of the various groups addressing El Toro reuse planning, there’s nothing like the power of the press to keep our county leadership on the straight and narrow.

So, the basic question our county leadership has to resolve is, what’s best for Orange County?

Is it an international airport with great emphasis on an accompanying improvement in the county’s industry and commerce?

Or is it the despotic cramming of an airport down the throats of the thousands and thousands of families that live within the flight patterns of such a proposed facility?

Now, I’m fully aware that Orange County voters have twice voted in favor of an El Toro airport. Obviously, that’s pretty hard medicine to swallow if you’re opposed to the airport.

But what is equally hard to swallow is the fact that many of the pro-airport votes came from communities that will not experience any detrimental environmental or traffic problems from an El Toro airport. Sure, if you live in Huntington Beach or Yorba Linda, why not have an airport down at El Toro?

It’s a shame that the El Toro ballot measures couldn’t have been confined to only those thousands of residents who will be directly affected by the noise, air pollution and traffic congestion.

If a vote by directly affected residents turned out to be in favor of an airport, then so be it! If anything else, we could then all go about our business and quit spending so much money on fighting for or against an El Toro airport.

KEITH BRIDWELL

Laguna Niguel

* The issue of the reuse of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station has polarized Orange County into two “over-my-dead-body” groups. While valid arguments exist for both perspectives, several salient facts seem to be not in dispute.

* Orange County is rapidly approaching 3 million population;

* El Toro’s aviation-dedicated land area is 18,450 acres. The base boundaries are 4,700 acres. John Wayne Airport, with 470 dedicated acres, has no expansion prospects without land acquisition in an area already totally developed.

* Flight operations create noise which attenuates with distance from the source.

* Vehicular traffic from a 18,450-acre site will require massive mitigations regardless of the land use. Four expressways (two under construction) and a rail corridor serve El Toro.

* John Wayne Airport is able to handle less than 5% of the air freight demand and less than 50% of the passenger traffic demand forecast for the first decade of the 21st century.

* International airports in suburban areas serve to increase residential values, e.g., Chicago’s O’Hare, Orange County’s John Wayne, Dallas and others.

These facts are not in dispute by either side. What seems to be in dispute is the political impact upon existing officeholders were they to follow the logical course of action at El Toro. Do voters have to wait until term limits are at hand for legislators to demonstrate a responsible, courageous profile?

Our political leadership should act to defuse this embarrassingly degrading controversy by developing the criteria by which the gift of El Toro can maximize the benefits to all of us in Orange County, a county bigger than all but a handful of multi-county metropolitan areas!

PAUL R. GERST

Newport Beach

* City Council member Alice Jempsa of Los Alamitos, in her Feb. 1 letter, asked that proverbial question, “Who would oppose something so good?” I do and so do over 50% of all Orange County residents.

I believe that public servants like Jempsa have a duty to the public to make accurate statements concerning El Toro.

Federal law prohibits joint military and civilian use at El Toro. Two airline associations have said that El Toro is unsafe in current configuration. In addition, the head of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station is on record against joint usage.

The county hired a company owned by a major airline to study and report on the airport configuration, a direct conflict of interest.

More than 60% of the citizens of south Orange County feel that this base conversion is wrong for the quality of our environment, the safety of our children and the business of Orange County.

The $4.9 billion in revenue figures hawked by airport supporters is inflated. How about the $2 billion to $3 billion it will take to redo El Toro to a civilian facility? Who is going to pay for John Wayne when the county shuts it down?

It is “we the people” that are against “something so good.”

MICHAEL J. KELLNER

Lake Forest