Airport Foes Encouraged by Own Poll

Hoping to demonstrate that public opinion is turning, foes of a commercial airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station released their own poll Wednesday showing that a majority now oppose the county’s airport plans.

The poll, conducted by Virginia-based Public Opinion Strategies, queried 600 Orange County residents. That’s less than half of the number surveyed in a recent UCI poll that also concluded most residents don’t want a civilian airport at the 4,700-acre base.

In the latest poll, done for the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, 51% said they opposed an airport while 43% favored it. About 58% believed Southern California has enough airports, while 39% said another airport is needed.

Airport foes said the results of their survey, which was conducted Dec. 4 and 8 and has a margin of error of 4%, demonstrate the tide is turning against the county’s plan to turn El Toro into a civilian facility after the military departs in 1999. The poll, paid for by ETRPA, cost $18,000.

“This survey provides meaningful feedback,” said Richard Dixon, chairman of the ETRPA. “County staff has been telling the people of Orange County what they need and what they want but Orange County residents know that an airport at El Toro is not a done deal.”

Critics of the poll say the pollsters could not break down the percentage of those surveyed who live in South County cities, where opposition to the airport has been strong.

The pollsters say that of the North County residents surveyed, 53% support airport plans while 63% of the South County residents are opposed to the airport plan.

The critics also point out that countywide voters have proven at the polls--with the passage of Measure A in 1994 clearing the way for an airport, and the defeat of Measure S two years later that would have annulled Measure A--that Orange County residents want an airport.

“The voters have voted twice and they have said they want the airport. We live in a democracy,” said Supervisor Jim Silva, who is an airport supporter.

Further, county officials argue that 56% of those surveyed in the ETRPA poll believe county officials are credible on the airport issue. And 40% of the respondents said the county’s planning process has been “fair and open”--something that airport supporters say demonstrates the public’s growing confidence in the county.

Taking a different view, ETRPA pollsters say that 34% of those questioned have no opinion on the county’s planning process. In addition, 57% of the respondents said the Board of Supervisors has not studied the issue enough and has been too quick to decide on the airport alternative for the base.

Courtney Wiercioch, who is in charge of the county’s airport project, dismissed the poll’s conclusions, saying the public does not have enough information on the county’s plans for the Marine base because the specifics of the project will not be completed until April.

Wiercioch added that all of the preferred uses for the base that respondents named, such as a technology center, a university and recreational parks, are included in the county’s master plan for the base.

Airport foes such as Supervisor Todd Spitzer said the poll shows that residents are paying attention to the planning process and are concerned about the future of the base.

“For anybody to go out today and dismiss the findings of this report is turning a blind eye to something very important,” said Spitzer. “This is not just a South County issue, this is an Orange County issue.”

Respondents cited safety as their main concern with developing a commercial airport at the base. The nation’s two pilot unions have stated their concerns with the county’s plans to have 70% of the takeoffs on the east-west runways because planes would be taking off with a tail wind, on a short runway, going toward the mountains.

On Wednesday, Spitzer mentioned a 1988 Federal Aviation Administration report that examined joint military and civilian use of the El Toro air station. In the report, officials said that use of the eastern runway--or runway 7--by civil aircraft would have to be restricted because of the “tail wind conditions, runway gradient and payload limitations.”

Still, county officials say that runway is safe and that the FAA has yet to make a public statement on the current plans to convert the base into a civilian airport.

Times staff writer Shelby Grad contributed to this report.