Readers Respond to El Toro Series

* Thank you for your thoughtful series regarding the reuse of Marine Corps Air Station El Toro.

The May 28 article on the Dallas-Fort Worth area distilled the complicated El Toro issue down to the most pertinent questions: What sort of community do we want to live in, and what legacy will we pass on to the next generation?

As the example of DFW clearly shows, an airport is virtually impossible to control. The number of flights, hours of operation, landing and departure routes, air traffic patterns, pollution, noise, ground traffic and urban sprawl will rule all of our lives.

Despite the claims of our county government and staff, we have a perfectly good, underutilized, still-unpaid-for airport that will carry us well into the next century.

I firmly believe that most residents who live in Orange County would not want to live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Or the Los Angeles area. That is precisely why we are here.

The non-aviation Millennium Plan will create wealth, economic growth and job opportunities in a diversified manner that will rival or surpass the county’s airport plan without the myriad negative impacts inherent in the county plan.

A special election on this issue will be a simple referendum on the kind of lives we want for ourselves and our families. Will we vote for spirited economic growth without destroying the place that we love? I hope so.

RICHARD W. LUBLINE

Aliso Viejo

* Thank you for presenting both sides of the El Toro reuse issue so fairly.

It is hard for either side to approach the subject without emotion. My wife and I were amazed at the discourtesy shown to the county staff and consultants at a recent meeting hosted by Supervisor Tom Wilson that presented both the airport plans and the Millennium Plan. In a room full of airport opponents, the air was charged with anger, vented at the “messengers” who were only doing their job.

It does seem fair now to have another vote. When the airport was voted on twice before, people were under the impression that the existing El Toro air station could be simply reused as a commercial airport, with the addition of terminal facilities, parking, etc.

Now it appears very little can be reused. A new runway would have to be built as a minimum, along with new fuel piping and storage. The crossing pattern of the east-west runways and their length and slope are also questionable for reuse. And then there is the possibility an expensive “people mover” from John Wayne Airport would be needed.

All concepts developed by the county use 2,300 acres or less for the airport. In the case of the “preferred” Concept C, 2,217 acres would be used for 24 million annual passengers. Compare that with Charlotte/Douglas Airport with 5,760 acres serving 22 million, Salt Lake City with 7,296 acres serving 21 million, Pittsburgh with 9,984 acres serving 20 million, and El Toro looks a little cramped.

Let’s keep north and south Orange County together and vote once more on whether or not there should be an international commercial airport at El Toro--based on full information of alternatives.

JACK BASSLER

Laguna Hills

* The interesting May 24 piece on El Toro said those polled liked the so-called Millennium Plan because it includes a large “central park.”

Like so much of the Millennium Plan, the idea of a large park that can “ward off development” looks great until you think about it.

“Central to what?” I say. There is no “central” to Orange County. There are already in Irvine several very nice community parks and the Mason Regional Park.

Who needs another one so close by? Who would use this park? Who would pay for its upkeep? If the concern is open space to ward off development, the existing airport, in its infield and clear zone areas, provides a greater protection.

NORM EWERS

Irvine

* While a Newport Beach resident from 1962 to 1981, I was one of the leaders in the fight to prevent John Wayne Airport from becoming an intolerable source of jet noise pollution. In the past year or so, I’ve been struck by the contrast between our situation and strategy and that of the South County foes of El Toro.

John Wayne was a general aviation airport with no jets before the county, in the mid-1960s, realigned, lengthened and strengthened the runways, and built a passenger terminal.

At the time that expansion plan was approved in 1962, the Board of Supervisors promised us in writing that commercial jets would not be allowed. A few months after its 1967 completion, scheduled jet flights commenced without warning or public hearings. The runway realignment caused those jets to fly directly over our homes.

El Toro, on the other hand, has been a military fighter jet facility since the 1950s (I was a Marine stationed there in those years).

Today’s military fighter jets are at least four times noisier than the current generation of commercial jets. Noise contour data for the converted airport show that the cumulative noise exposure would be substantially less than the levels that have prevailed throughout most of El Toro’s life.

All of the county-sponsored aviation studies, from the 1960s onward, recommended conversion of El Toro to a commercial airport when and if it ever became available. A prudent South County home buyer from the 1960s to the present could have easily confirmed that this was the intention of county government.

As in any grass-roots movement, there are always a few out-of-control pinwheels. We managed to keep them suppressed most of the time. The El Toro anti-airport leadership, on the other hand, seems to be dominated by pinwheels, and it is the rational ones who are suppressed.

My experience with pinwheels of all persuasions leads me to conclude that their involvement in political movements arises from an inchoate need to escape from a world dominated by facts and reality. They think political action should resemble a trip to Disneyland.

We believed a rational approach to political action, to be successful, must be developed within the context of facts and realistic alternatives.

Our consistent strategy was to work for a rational and feasible set of controls on John Wayne Airport. We succeeded to such an extent that the “noise budgeting” solution that was ultimately worked out has become a model for other airports around the world.

The anti-El Toro forces would be well-advised to follow our example. It’s apparent that, before such a sea change in strategy can occur, the pinwheels must be pushed aside.

DAN EMORY

Huntington Beach

* The Times series has been both informative and misleading.

The reader must sift through fact and opinion to determine credibility. This form of journalism muddles public perceptions.

Perhaps sticking to the facts in a series would be most beneficial to all. The disparaging comments of most of the non-aviation proposals were presented as credible fact by proponents rather than as naysaying.

Let’s be fair. When you quote organizations such as the Southern California Assn. of Governments, why not clarify who these groups represent. Often such organizations consist of an official-sounding name and a few city governments. Hardly representative of all of Southern California.

This may be the first and only time that Newport Beach hobnobs with Stanton and Westminster. Do they feel used? Probably, but the financial promises no doubt made it hard for them to resist.

MARY SCHWARTZ

Santa Ana

* After reviewing “Put Airport on Ballot Again, Voters Say,” May 24, it appears The Times needs to retake Statistics 101.

The article was based on a random telephone survey of 600 registered voters in Orange County.

The flaw with the survey appears to be that it was based on “registered voters,” not “those most likely to vote.” Big difference.

The county supervisors, like all elected officials, are well aware that less than 50% of registered voters actually bother to vote in many elections. They are also aware that the views of those registered voters who actually vote are somewhat different from “all registered voters” and act accordingly.

What is really sad is that some misguided folks may actually go to the unnecessary effort and expense to put this issue on the ballot again, based on a flawed survey. What a waste of the taxpayers’ time and money that would be to repeat a process whose outcome is already known.

To paraphrase a well known expression, “There are lies, there are damned lies, and there are polls.”

PAUL M. JONES JR.

Yorba Linda

* I read with great interest the Texas airport story and could not agree more.

I was at the DFW dedication ceremony and remember it well. The location was selected to serve the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth. So the airport is located approximately halfway between the cities. We have the same scenario for Orange County and San Diego: two major metropolitan areas that could best be served with an international airport located somewhere in between.

Why not use part of the Marine base at Camp Pendleton or some other location in the same area? With so much wide open area, it would be ideal to install high-speed rail service to Orange County, San Diego and the Inland Empire along Interstate 15.

John Wayne Airport could remain status quo, and El Toro could follow the Millennium Plan.

KENNETH D. TAYLOR

Tustin

* I live in south Orange County, a lot closer to the jet noise and final approach course to El Toro than Tristan Krogius, who was deceptively pictured at the departure end of the runway at John Wayne in your article, “Full-Throttle Airport Fight Breeds County Blood Feud.”

I think throwing away a multibillion dollar asset because of jet noise that was here when almost all of us moved here is selfish and irresponsible.

What would our nation be like if our forefathers had put their self-interest above helping their neighbors? What would the world be like if our nation had not made the sacrifices required for World War II?

RICHARD MILLER

Laguna Hills

* The fatuous comment that “. . . nobody is likely to die over the [El Toro] airport issue” is absurd.

Not every death need be instantaneous. The suffering caused by continuous flights (minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day, ad infinitum) will surely result in the “death” of the mental and physical well-being of the hundreds of thousands of us living under the proposed flight patterns.

I would like to make a very modest proposal: We hire jets to fly over the homes of all airport proponents for 24 hours daily, for one week. Of course, they and their families would have to remain at home during the entire period.

After that, I will listen to their pro-airport arguments. That is, if they can still think clearly and speak coherently after this continuous assault on their minds and bodies.

They may just find that a quick death on a battlefield might be preferable to the grinding, daily deterioration of our beings.

ROSALYN EBENHOLT

Laguna Hills

* A recent poll indicated strong countywide support (North and South) for the Millennium Plan, the non-airport alternative for El Toro, while at the same time it opposed all four airport alternatives.

Perhaps it is now time that the Board of Supervisors rescinds the so-called fatal-flaw provision it imposed on the Millennium Plan.

This provision will not permit the selection of a non-airport alternative unless all four of the airport options are considered to be technically not feasible, according to federal or state regulations. Economic and quality-of-life benefits are not taken into consideration.

Clearly, this onerous provision does not facilitate the people’s preference for the Millennium Plan or their opposition to any airport alternative.

PAUL WILLEMS

Laguna Niguel