El Toro Airport: Just Saying ‘No’

* As I read Clarence Turner’s May 10 column, “How to Build an Airport That Will Fly,” I recalled a meeting in my office when I was mayor of Irvine during the 1980s.

Then-Newport Beach council member Clarence Turner and one of his pals in the Airport Working Group asked for the meeting, at which they demanded that Irvine accede to Newport’s wishes to convert the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro to a commercial airport.

Even now, I recall how impressed I was with their arrogance. They didn’t seem to [care] that commercializing El Toro would completely trash Irvine’s General Plan and 20 years of planned community development throughout central and southern Orange County.

I said “no” to Turner then. And hundreds of thousands of us say “no” to him now. Turner’s soothing words about a kinder, gentler international airport can’t hide the truth.

Even the Board of Supervisors’ preferred “mid-sized” El Toro International Airport would be about half the size of today’s Los Angeles International Airport, and would involve 492 takeoffs and landings in every 24-hour period.

That’s more than 20 commercial jet operations per hour, including middle-of-the-night cargo flights. And keep in mind that unlike LAX, El Toro is landlocked; there is no Pacific Ocean to absorb the noise and air pollution of takeoffs. In fact, the county’s plans make it clear that the biggest, noisiest aircraft will take off to the north--over the cities of Tustin, Villa Park, Placentia, Orange and Fullerton.

As Turner knows, this isn’t a battle of North County against South County--it’s the Newport Beach power crowd against the rest of Orange County.

LARRY AGRAN

Irvine

* Here we go again. More pro-airport propaganda. I am disappointed by Turner’s attempting to portray the concept of a kinder, gentler airport.

It is obvious that Turner is attempting to lull Orange County citizens into supporting an airport at El Toro.

He supports an airport concept developed by an Orange County government that was involved in our bankruptcy. He supports an airport concept that is full of misinformation and downright lies. It is no surprise that he is a former mayor of Newport Beach and is on the board of directors for a pro-airport lobbying group, the Airport Working Group.

It concerns me that our county government and Turner are so blinded by a project that clearly has no financial merit to the citizens of Orange County. The airport is not about jobs. It is about noise mitigation for the city of Newport Beach and a bounty of revenue for a few select developers.

I agree with Turner’s comment about needing bold and creative leadership. However, I disagree that the answer is an airport at El Toro. True leadership should craft a non-aviation use for El Toro, where high-paying jobs and quality of life would truly benefit the taxpayers of Orange County. It is time for responsible planning, not special interests!

MICHAEL ULLMAN

Irvine

* The op-ed article by the former mayor of Newport Beach clearly shows the arrogance of the pro-El Toro airport factions.

Turner says that the issues concerning the building of El Toro airport are really noise, safety and hours of operation. If he were to leave Newport Beach and travel to South County, he would find that the issue is: We do not want an airport at El Toro.

Anyone driving down MacArthur Boulevard near the 405 freeway can see the results of hundreds of millions of dollars that was spent to upgrade John Wayne Airport. And there is construction that is still going on.

This must mean that money is still being spent to upgrade John Wayne. I’m sure that all of these improvements could easily accommodate around-the-clock flights and 20 million passengers a year.

But then, to paraphrase the former mayor, I’m sure that when it comes to increasing the number of flights and hours of operation at John Wayne Airport, the people of Newport Beach and surrounding areas see the issues of noise, safety and hours of operation.

PAUL PRUSS

Lake Forest

* Clarence Turner wrote a good and thoughtful article.

The theme is with thoughtfulness and compromise, we can build El Toro airport so Orange County can grow into the 21st Century.

My question is a simple one: Why do you think we want or need more growth? Maybe we happen to like things the way they are. If the people of Orange County wanted more tourists, congestion, noise, smog and crime, they can move to Los Angeles or New York. Who needs it?

DAVE SCHLENKER

Laguna Hills

* Clarence Turner’s article should have appeared in the Books section, under Fiction.

The first fiction is that “if you build it, they will come.” Yet no airline has expressed an interest in coming to El Toro.

The second fiction is that the county can impose a night curfew. Yet federal laws prohibit this.

The last fiction is that safe easterly takeoffs can be agreed upon by the county and the Air Pilots Assn. What if no such agreement can be arrived at? Will the airport proposal then be scrapped?

There is also a mystery in this story: High-tech industry and a convention center, when proposed by the Millennium Plan, are viewed as competitively destructive to existing establishments, but are embraced when they are part of the county’s “airport community.”

Previous fictitious claims, that an airport is needed to promote economic and job growth, have fallen by the wayside in the face of a strong economy and the superior economic benefits of the Millennium Plan. I suspect that with time, the current fiction of a “need” for increased airport capacity outside of John Wayne, will also be proven to be a spun yarn.

HANNA HILL

Irvine