Anti-Airport Plan Faces Tough Fight, Poll Finds

Residents favor a proposed initiative that would require approval by two-thirds of voters to build or expand airports, jails or hazardous-waste landfills, but support dropped when residents were told it could kill the planned airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, a Times Orange County Poll has found.

The survey indicates that south Orange County backers of the initiative face a tough fight to win passage of the measure, which is targeted for the March 2000 primary.

Overall, 61% of county residents support the initiative. But when told that the measure could stop the county’s plans for the international airport, support dropped to 50%.

Significantly, support in north Orange County fell from 58% to 44% after residents were told the airport could be blocked.

“The key to the measure’s success or failure is among north Orange County voters because the bulk of the county population is in the north,” said Cheryl Katz, vice president of Baldassare Associates, which conducted the poll. “And it’s very vulnerable there.”

The poll is the first independent gauge of countywide support for the initiative since it was unveiled last month by the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, a coalition of seven south Orange County cities fighting the airport.

An earlier poll commissioned by the anti-airport coalition showed 71% support countywide, although half of the respondents lived in south Orange County.