Aviation Use Backers Expect Deal

The decision by foes of the proposed El Toro airport to dramatically alter their strategy for killing the project has given airport proponents confidence that a compromise can be worked out.

Newport Beach Mayor Dennis D. O’Neil said Friday that the decision could defuse emotions long enough to give both sides time to talk over issues “without the threat of an initiative.”

“I also hope the leadership of the pro-airport constituencies and the anti-airport constituencies will . . . find a solution which will be compatible with both sides’ interests,” he said.

A coalition of South County cities and activist groups said they ran out of time for a 1999 vote. The group had been promising a special election this year on replacing the county’s airport plans with their Millennium Plan, a non-aviation alternative for the 4,700-acre Marine Corps Air Station. The base will close in July.

Now, though, the coalition will seek a ballot measure in 2000 that would require a two-thirds vote for any county plans for airports, jails and landfills.

O’Neil acknowledged that his belief that a compromise is now possible is a “naively opportunistic” opinion, especially in view of the ongoing battle over the airport. But he was not the only outspoken pro-airport voice who talked

about compromise.

Gary Proctor, co-chairman of a pro-airport commission that advises county supervisors, said both sides must realize they have more to gain by sitting down and talking.

“I’m still a big believer that this airport can be best built but only in a compromise,” Proctor said.

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Ironically, anti-airport leaders already have extended an olive branch, mailing invitations to Newport Beach officials to sit down and talk, said Paul Eckles, executive director of the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a seven-city group fighting the airport.

“We’d be interested in listening to a compromise, but it depends on the nature and who wants to compromise,” Eckles said.

The planning authority mailed the invitation two weeks ago, Eckles said, as a means of getting together with city officials and “coming up with a common strategy.”

“Since then, we’ve had some quiet talks with political leaders from Newport,” Eckles said. He would not elaborate.

Eckles pointed out that Newport Beach doesn’t want to have John Wayne Airport expanded and his group doesn’t want a commercial airport at El Toro.

But Proctor has no illusions about South County’s resolve.

“I don’t think they will surrender or compromise, and I’m fearful their attorney will advise them to fight tooth and nail in the courtroom,” he said. “And that’s wasteful money.”

As if to confirm his fears, outspoken airport critic Gail Reavis of Mission Viejo said that it may already be too late for any agreement.

Reavis said she has appeared often before county supervisors and airport advisory groups to air her opinions. She criticized supervisors for “listening, but not being willing to make changes.”

South County airport opponents were adamant that despite the decision on the initiative, they won’t stop fighting the airport plan.

“We haven’t come to a halt, and we’ve known about the possibility of not having an initiative all along,” said Wayne Rayfield, chairman of the anti-airport El Toro Task Force. “It was likely that the measure would have taken a long time to get on the ballot. This is not a disaster at all.”

Irvine Councilman Mike Ward said he was confident the coalition could persuade county voters to reject the airport next year.

“Dropping the initiative this year came as no shock,” Ward said. “We can still win if we get a high turnout. If you think your plan is a good plan, and our Millennium Plan is, then why would you get a low voter turnout?”

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One problem with rushing to put a measure on this year’s ballot is that it would not have given anti-airport foes enough time to mount a petition drive.

“It would have been nip and tuck to get the petition done,” said Bob Ring, head of Leisure World’s Golden Rain Foundation, one of the main backers of the failed 1996 countywide anti-airport initiative.

“As we learned the last time, you’ve really got to start knocking on doors very early to win at a grass-roots level. And this is truly a grass-roots kind of thing.”

Supervisor Jim Silva, who is a member of the 3-2 majority that has moved along airport plans, said Orange County voters already have voted twice for an airport at El Toro. The first vote was in 1994.

Silva, who was reelected in November after a bitter battle against anti-airport candidate Dave Sullivan, figures he knows one reason why Sullivan’s South County backers changed their plans: “They spent all their money on Sullivan.”

“I think that the voters have voted twice and we have a clear opinion, at least from my district, that they want the [El Toro] airport,” Silva added. “Everywhere I go, people tell me they want an airport there.”