Disney Clarifies Stance on El Toro Airport

* It is frustrating to read headlines where none are warranted in the El Toro airport debate.

The article in the Nov. 11 paper, “Disneyland Decides It Doesn’t Need El Toro,” gives your readers a partial and distorted story.

For the record, Disneyland’s position on an airport at the former El Toro Marine base remains unchanged. We are neither for nor against an airport at El Toro. The Disneyland Resort would certainly benefit from an airport at this location. At the same time, if an airport is not built here, we feel that other regional airports are adequate to meet the resort’s transportation needs in 2001.

It’s important to note that you never asked me for my position on El Toro. In fact, the question that was posed to me was whether there is sufficient transportation infrastructure to accommodate our new park.

Based on our current plan, the answer is yes, the current infrastructure will meet the demands of our new park opening in 2001. It is inconceivable as to how you turned this into a proclamation with another headline of “Disney: Surprising No on El Toro.”

It is up to the residents of Orange County to decide whether they want an airport at this location or whether one will ever be built here. Disneyland will continue to plan for the long-term future to ensure its success, regardless of the outcome of this debate.

We challenge The Times to focus on the facts behind the issues and not on emphasizing out-of-context sound bites for the sake of sensational headlines.

PAUL PRESSLER

President, Walt Disney Attractions

Burbank

* The Walt Disney Co., by way of Paul Pressler’s comments Nov. 11, has finally realized it does not need to force an unwanted and unneeded international airport at El Toro onto the nearby residents.

This fight has never been about economics. It has always been about politics and the shifting of an airport at John Wayne Airport over to El Toro at the behest of the city of Newport Beach.

As with so many other ventures our county government has undertaken, such as the highly underutilized and greatly in-debt toll roads, an El Toro airport would be a big money loser and hurt the whole county.

That land has much better uses, such as the Millennium Plan, which will truly enhance the quality of life in Orange County, something that can only help the future of this county and of Disneyland.

We are going to Disneyland!

FRED AND CHERYL

HEINECKE

Irvine

* As a visitor-industry leader in Orange County, the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor and Convention Bureau must reiterate its position on the importance of converting El Toro Marine Corps Air Station into an international airport.

We are at a crucial juncture in the county’s history. What we decide in the coming months will dramatically affect our ability to serve Orange County visitors in the future.

The county must have an international gateway in order to compete for future domestic and international visitors.

It is folly to assume that building additional visitor industry infrastructure will automatically bring visitors in greater numbers. If visitors cannot access Orange County with ease, they will opt for destinations with greater accessibility.

In the West we compete for tourist dollars with extremely attractive destinations such as Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. Each has a significant airport with international access. If we don’t level the playing field in the near future, we will find ourselves out of the game.

CHARLES A. AHLERS

President, Anaheim/Orange

County Visitor

and Convention Bureau

Anaheim

* Re “Disneyland Decides It Doesn’t Need El Toro,” Nov. 11:

Orange County officials have become proficient at calling names for any opponent of their plans for a 28.8-million-passenger-per-year international airport built smack in the middle of some of the nation’s largest carefully planned urban communities.

Those who question the project’s wisdom have been pejoratively labeled by county officials as everything from “not in my backyard” people to “extremists.”

Now Board of Supervisors Chairman Charles Smith declares that Walt Disney Attractions President Paul Pressler is “misinformed” because, based upon careful company research, he concluded that Disneyland does not need an airport at the El Toro site to bring more tourists to the theme park.

I suspect that both Orange County bondholders and Walt Disney stockholders would agree about which entity has demonstrated the better business judgment in recent years.

Thus the irony in Smith’s arrogance in claiming to know not only what is best for the entire county, but also--better than Disney itself--what is best for Disneyland.

KEN MORRISON

Tustin

* Now that the area’s largest tourist attraction has made public its opinion that an international airport in the midst of an urban area is unnecessary, isn’t it about time that the county supervisors’ majority and their financial backers come to the same reality?

It should be apparent to the supervisors that those who would be most directly affected by an airport, and now Disneyland, do not want this airport.

NEIL MORCHOWER

Irvine

* Supervisor Charles V. Smith calls Disney’s Paul Pressler “misinformed” about El Toro being necessary for the expansion of Disneyland’s business.

I wonder how many other heads of businesses who decided that they don’t need the airport are also misinformed.

I think for the pro-airport supervisors, it’s come down to a fight of saving face. But for the sake of unification of the county, I urge these supervisors to put their personal fights aside, bow out gracefully and start the healing process.

ROBERT YING

Laguna Niguel

* In “Disneyland Decides It Doesn’t Need El Toro,” many questions remain unresolved.

The transit quandary of Orange County needs to be remedied. Here are suggestions.

* Build El Toro Airport. If this is unacceptable, widen the Century Freeway and extend it and the Green Line train to the Santa Ana Freeway at the Orange County border. Better yet, bring the Green Line down to the Disneyland area.

* Widen the Santa Ana Freeway from Orange County all the way into Los Angeles. This will help to fix the unfortunate traffic conditions that now exist for transit in the important travel corridor between Los Angeles International Airport and Orange County.

The economy is strong, tax revenue is up, why aren’t our politicians doing more to improve transportation in the Los Angeles area? Elected officials need to earn their money.

FRANK WATERS

Anaheim

* Bravo to Disney for finally providing a sound voice of reason regarding the El Toro debate.

The Board of Supervisors can learn a lesson from Disney. It took the time to do studies of economic trends, transportation issues and the like before stating its opinion.

If the board would have done anything resembling effective land use and project planning like Disney it would not have created the divisiveness that exists in Orange County today.

JOHN BERRY

Aliso Viejo

* Congratulations to Disneyland for its bold statement regarding no need for El Toro.

Supervisor Charles V. Smith is wrong, not Paul Pressler.

Disney has correctly perceived the importance of safety and health over the interests and motives of the proponents. And Smith has once again vocalized his total lack of regard, or his contempt, for the residents of south Orange County.

His retort that Pressler is misinformed regarding the proponents’ well-promoted “need” for El Toro comes across as arrogant and uncompromising, as we’ve come to expect.

But maybe that’s the proponents’ real issue: an airport at El Toro or nothing.

The tide has obviously turned and the three pro-El Toro airport supervisors are starting to feel the winds of change, making them uncomfortable.

Having aligned themselves in a no-win position, they are demonstrating they are beholden to the proponents and are unabashedly biased. They are certainly not pro-airport when it comes to John Wayne or Los Alamitos.

DEREK QUINN

Laguna Niguel