El Toro Airport, Noxious Issues

* The South County anti-airport coalition has come up with a plan that all county residents should be happy to support. The noxious uses proposition makes it virtually impossible for either airport to become a worse neighbor than it presently is.

This proposition is needed, even if eventually defeated, to wake up the deaf majority on the county Board of Supervisors. Charles V. Smith and Jim Silva appear to have a deeply rooted dislike for South County as a whole. Cynthia Coad is certainly following their lead.

Thanks to the Board of Supervisors, South County residents pay more than North County residents for what North County takes for granted.

Most South County communities have Mello-Roos taxes to help pay for the toll roads which we have to pay to use. Most of the Measure M road tax dollars go north of the El Toro Y.

Our supervisors don’t have money to replace the Aliso Pier, but they do have money for flight tests and other measures for an unwanted airport.

The Musick facility makes for a nice mega-jail, according to the board, since it’s bordered by Irvine and Lake Forest. The supervisors please the Newport Beach developers by issuing high-density building permits in unincorporated areas. If incorporated, a local city would not allow them.

What will it take for the Board of Supervisors to listen to South County? I think this proposition is a good start.

FRANK ALVAREZ

Monarch Beach

* The anti-El Toro forces are in shambles and are losing support in their increasingly desperate bid to obstruct El Toro at any cost.

The latest initiative effort by South County residents was abandoned because they are tired of losing. They have lost two initiatives; they bet heavily and unsuccessfully on supervisorial candidate Dave Sullivan in the last election; and they lost again when supervisors approved tests of commercial jets at El Toro.

They expect these tests to further hurt their cause as residents realize these planes are much quieter than Marine jets.

These are people who have shown they will not compromise. They want no airport at all in South County. Originally, they had hoped for a “fatal flaw” in the airport plans that would halt it. Apparently they fear there isn’t one.

Their Millennium Plan is nothing more than a red herring to obstruct airport planning. There is nothing in this plan that Orange County needs or could not have with a new airport also.

Their latest proposal, to have “all major projects in Orange County be approved by a two-thirds majority of voters,” is no more than another plan to stop El Toro. It seems they are wisely giving up on this idea before they commit to it. Even if it passed, it should lose in the courts.

If losses continue to mount, more and more South County residents will leave the “no compromise” bloc. They will want to have some input on El Toro.

MICHAEL STEINER

Costa Mesa

* After attending the Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting Jan. 26 regarding approval of air cargo at El Toro and reading about the thousands of hotel rooms planned for central county, I can only urge Orange County residents to let their elected officials know that what we want is planned growth with supporting infrastructure.

Growth in Orange County will occur no matter what. The question is: Can our elected officials properly manage this activity?

The three supervisors who voted to approve air cargo basically ignored the concerns of the other supervisors, businesspeople and residents which were discussed for well over an hour.

The three supervisors took less than 10 minutes to approve the initiative and did not ask one question of county staff or address any of the issues discussed.

I am sure central county residents will be happy to know their officials are planning tremendous growth. How many residents are currently happy traveling our existing roads within the county and with public transportation?

People [should] let their supervisors and elected officials know how they feel. An e-mail or phone call will only take a minute. Those who do nothing will have no one to point fingers at but themselves.

ANDREW MAY

Lake Forest

* As a resident of South County and an opponent of the proposed international airport at El Toro, it never ceases to amaze me how people who live a comfortable distance away from South County, as Chelsea Carbaugh does (Letters, Jan. 3), can criticize us for not wanting to listen to a worthless two-day flight demonstration which will not even come close to representing what takeoffs and landings every three minutes, 24 hours a day, will sound like.

She accuses us of not wanting to listen and learn the truth. I have a suggestion: Let’s reroute the takeoff and landing patterns so that they are over Carbaugh’s residence. That way, Carbaugh can, to quote her, “Try listening. It’s a great way to learn the truth.”

PAUL PRUSS

Lake Forest

* I find politicians “noxious.” Does this mean they can be eliminated? I bet that is something two-thirds of the county could agree on.

SHARON PENPRASE

Fountain Valley